Unintended Consequences
by Sheherazade's Fable
Summary: The unintended consequences of freeing Magneto from the Pentagon leads Peter Maximoff and his sisters into the arms of a rising organization called the Brotherhood. Peter's determined to find his place within its ranks, even if it means leaving his soul by the wayside.
1. Chapter 1

Peter wasn't one to think things through. Sure, there were a few things in his life that he had actually planned. Some of his more intricate heists, such as stealing a truck full of twinkies the first time, had taken some planning. He'd had to plan on what to nab for his sisters' birthdays, things like that. He'd also planned on studiously ignoring his mother's birthday.

However, he was getting the feeling that he should start. In the past few days he'd broken someone out of the Pentagon. At the time he had just been excited at how he had been able to get past all those stuffed suits, to break into the most secure building in the entire world. He'd been able to take down all of those guards while those men he'd come in with had bickered.

He'd been feeling pretty good, congratulating himself on perhaps reaching a new horizon in what was promising to be an illustrious career, right until he'd seen the man he'd rescued on TV. Peter had watched, holding his sister in his lap, as Magneto had declared himself against humanity, called on mutants to join him, and attempted to assassinate the President.

Peter had also watched as the blue woman had stopped him, but something had started deep inside him. His mother had turned off the TV after that and, for once, he hadn't argued. He'd pushed his sister off his lap and gone down to the basement.

He'd been restless once he was down there, even more than usual. Peter had eaten three twinkies, played four video games and two games of billiards, but he was still going stir crazy. He considered going for a run around the city before dismissing it. He didn't feel like being outside.

The door to the basement opened. Peter tried to remember whether or not he'd locked it.

"Mom, go away!" he yelled.

"Really Peter, really?"

He rolled his eyes and didn't turn around.

"Not in the mood Wanda."

His sister sighed.

"I don't care what your mood is right now," she said.

He snorted and continued the level of Space Invaders that he was on. Wanda hated it when he played video games when he was supposed to be talking to her.

"When did you even get home?" he asked.

"Five minutes ago," Wanda said, "But it doesn't matter. You need to get upstairs."

"Why?"

"Lorna thinks you're mad at her."

He made a face and turned around. His twin was standing at the foot of the stairs, her arms crossed and looking pissed. Peter always figured she looked the most like him when she was angry.

"Why she think that?" he asked.

"Apparently you shoved her away without a word and then stalked off instead of playing with her like you promised," said Wanda, "You also ripped some of the ribbon off her favorite princess dress when you shoved her."

Oh. Shit.

"I can get her a new dress. And I'm not mad," he mumbled.

"I don't care whether you're mad or not," Wanda said, "You know how it is with Lorna. She only sits in people's laps when she's nervous, and you know that, and then you pushed her, and then you avoided her."

He tried to remember if his twelve-year-old baby sister had said anything when he'd pushed her away, had whimpered perhaps. She wasn't very talkative normally, but it bothered him that he couldn't remember whether or not she'd spoken.

"Yeah, well," he said, not quite knowing what to say to that, "I needed to come down here."

Wanda's eyes travelled from the twinkie wrappers to the new high scores on the video games.

"And you've been so very productive down here," she said.

"More than you," he said.

His sister snorted and sat down on the billiard table. She swung her legs a few times, her knee-high red boots clicking against the table. It was an odd combination with her waitress uniform.

"So, the guy who tried to assassinate the President was imprisoned in the Pentagon until a few days ago apparently," Wanda said casually, "You see anything when you were up there a couple of days ago?"

Peter slumped down into one of the armchairs. There was no question in Wanda's tone: only a hook for an explanation. He wished she didn't know him so well.

"So what if it was me?" he said.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Wanda, it was the Pentagon!" he whined, "When was I gonna get the chance to do that again?"

"Peter, listen closely. I'm gonna tell you now what I told you then," said Wanda, "You. Are. A. Moron!"

She picked up one of the billiard balls and threw it at him. He dodged and it hit the wall.

"If you hit me in the head with one of those, it could kill me," he said, "Not that you can, because you're too slow. It's just so you know."

"Do you have any idea what happens if they find out it was you?" she hissed.

"They won't. I was too fast for the cameras to pick up!" he argued.

"You don't know that!" Wanda said, "I don't mind the usual stuff you do-"

"Yeah, because it gets you designer shoes," he said.

Wanda picked up another billiard ball. He saw it glow red briefly before she tossed it at him. He tried to dodge it, but it changed course at the last moment and hit him in the arm. Hard.

"Jesus!" he said, rubbing his arm.

"If they find out it was you then they're going to come here, and you know what happens if they do that," she said, "They take you to God knows where-"

"They'd have to catch me first," Peter snapped.

"-and then they start looking at Lorna and me!" Wanda hissed.

Peter paused. Wanda folded her arms across her chest and banged her boots against the billiard table.

"They wouldn't," he said.

"How do you know that?" asked Wanda, "Peter, you have to start thinking about the rest of us!"

"I pity the suit who tries to arrest you," Peter said.

Wanda snorted. She raised her hand and fanned out her fingers. A slight red glow surrounded them.

"Peter, you don't get it," she said, "We're still not really sure how this works."

"Works when you wanna throw a billiard at me," said Peter, "And you turned that asshole down the road into a toad. I think we know how it works."

"I almost wasn't able to change him back," said Wanda, "But if you're going to be like that, then let's forget about me. Let's think about Lorna."

Peter paled.

"She's only twelve," he said, "They wouldn't."

"If they knew what she could do?" Wanda asked, "Yeah, Peter, I don't wanna take that chance."

Peter leaned forward, clasping his hands. He stared at his fingers for a minute, feeling pessimism creep in.

"Wanda, someone's gonna find out someday," he said, "I mean, mom found out. Wasn't the end of the world."

"Do you remember Lorna's face?" asked Wanda, "Tell that to her."

He clenched his hands into fists.

"Lorna's...had some stuff happen," Wanda said, her voice soft, "And people keep hurting her. We shouldn't add to that."

"I know."

He looked up.

"I don't want you guys to get hurt," he said.

"Then you get what I mean?" asked Wanda.

"Not exactly," he said.

"Meaning?"

He shook his head, trying to plan his words carefully. He needed Wanda to understand what he was talking about.

"Wanda, why should we have to hide?" he asked, "Why should we have to worry people are gonna come and drag us away?"

"We have to worry about that because it is a very real possibility," Wanda said, "We talked about this Peter. First Kennedy and now Nixon? People might remember that blue woman, but they're also gonna remember Magneto."

"So?" Peter asked.

"What do you mean, so?"

"I mean that I don't think we should have to do all of that," Peter said, "Just because it's practical doesn't mean that it's right."

"A lot of things happen that aren't right," said Wanda.

"I know, I know, but you listened to his speech right?" Peter said.

"It was on at the diner," said Wanda, "By the way, dinner is chicken pot pie."

Peter moaned. Ever since Wanda took up her job at the diner she got leftovers for free. As such, she was in charge of getting dinner since their mother was often out. He just wished that she had better taste when it came to food.

"You know I hate that," Peter complained.

"It was either that or meatloaf," Wanda snapped, "And if you think I'm eating meatloaf again-"

He held up a hand, deciding to get into his sister's abysmal menu decisions later.

"Whatever. Did you hear what he said?" asked Peter.

His sister raised his eyebrows.

"Are you seriously saying that a guy who killed one President and tried to kill another is a good person to go to for life advice?" Wanda said.

"Not what I asked. Did you hear?" Peter demanded.

Wanda bit her lip and tucked some of her auburn hair behind her ear.

"Yes," she said.

"It made sense, didn't it?" he asked.

"Peter, I don't want to talk about this," she said.

"Wanda, you don't understand!" he said, "After all this time we've finally got someone on our side!"

"Peter shut up!"

Three of the billiard balls glowed red and then shot off the table, hitting the floor. Wanda had her eyes clenched and was breathing hard. Peter got up and hurried to her side, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up, her eyes suddenly open.

"Wanda?" he asked.

His sister nodded. She ran a hand through her hair.

"This is what I mean," he said, "I wanna get you, and I wanna get Lorna, somewhere where you don't have to be afraid."

"There isn't a place like that," Wanda said tiredly.

He thought about the card that the hippie guy had given him, but decided not to mention it. He had the feeling that Xavier didn't quite hold the same values as Magneto.

"Not yet," said Peter, his voice earnest, "That's what Magneto wants to do. Yeah, he may be a little crazy, but we're all in a crazy situation right now. Wanda, can you imagine five years from now not being afraid? Being accepted?"

He grabbed his sister's hands.

"It would mean the world to me to be able to have that," Peter said, "What would it mean to you? To Lorna?"

Wanda turned away, her long hair making it difficult to see her face.

"Just go upstairs and apologize to Lorna," she said.

He let go of her hands.

"Can you at least think about it?" he asked.

"I'll think about it," Wanda said, "Now apologize."

Peter rolled his eyes and ran upstairs. It took him around a second to get to Lorna's room. He knocked on the door three times and then paused before knocking five more times. It was their own secret knock, born when he couldn't focus for more than five seconds. He could go for twenty seconds now that he was older.

The door opened and Peter slipped inside. Lorna was sitting at the other end of the room. She was tracing the outside of her lamp, watching as the metal bent in response to her touch. The door closed behind him, the metal handle swinging inwards.

"Sorry about earlier," he said, sitting down next to her, "I needed to get some air. Didn't mean to shove you."

Lorna stopped bending the lamp. She turned to him and gave a small smile. Peter grinned and grabbed her, giving her a noogie. She shrieked with laughter and pushed uselessly at his arms.

"I gotcha!" he said, "I gotcha!"

He let her go and she sat opposite from him, her brown hair tousled and her eyes gleaming. In that moment he realized just how much he had to lose. He'd have to be more careful for a while.

Peter had to do what was best for his family.


	2. Chapter 2

Wanda put on her sweater, getting ready for another shift at the diner. She earned a fair amount of tips there, which worked out well. She had learned long ago to get what she wanted for herself. If she mentioned wanting something to Peter she'd find it on her bed with the police looking for it.

Peter had often been reckless in the past. It was part of who he was, and because of that they could all still be comfortable when their mother began to drift away from them. He'd been the one who had rallied them after she'd found out about their abilities.

She loved her brother deeply. However, he had a habit of leaping before looking. He wanted what was best for her and Lorna, certainly, but he often couldn't see that the best thing would be to leave things well enough alone.

The Pentagon had been a mistake. It as one thing to steal a truck full of twinkies. When someone walks into the gas station and comes out five minutes later to find their entire stock gone, there was a threshold of belief they were willing to go to. They would hand things over to the police, who would, in turn, look for groups. Peter had often been kept safe due to the sheer improbability of one teen being able to steal all those things.

Even with improbability protecting him he'd still been caught sometimes. Back when he was starting out he'd made plenty of mistakes, and he'd spent several hours in the county jail because of it. Their mother had had to scratch together bail money, coming up short sometimes. Wanda started to save money herself, knowing that she might be the one who had to bail him out next time.

Adding a military facility to all of that made things so much worse. He had to go big and go for the Pentagon. Wanda didn't think that people reached that level of competence in the military by not being creative. Even if they didn't they had still managed to keep the man who killed Kennedy imprisoned for years. That required some roundabout thinking, given the fact that they couldn't use metal to build his prison.

It had been weeks since all of that had gone down, and no one had knocked on their door. No one had come and grabbed Peter. Wanda was starting to wonder if, perhaps, he'd been right. Maybe he had been going too fast for the cameras to pick up on him.

She pulled back her hair and walked into her room. She glanced at the clock. She still had about half an hour before she had to be down at the diner. Wanda locked the door and propped up her mattress.

It was the best hiding place she could think of to hide her tarot cards. Her mother didn't like them, but her great aunt had given them to her a long time ago. She hadn't begun using them again until a few years ago when she stopped caring about her mother and started caring about herself.

Wanda wasn't sure how much faith she possessed in her ability to read the cards, but until four years ago she hadn't possessed much faith in being able to turn people into toads. There were strange things in this world, and she was one of them.

She shuffled the deck, thinking of her siblings. Immediately she pulled out The fFool. Wanda snickered to herself. The Fool had always represented Peter in all of her readings. At least she knew that she would be able to find something out about her brother from this one.

The next card she pulled out was the Queen of Pentacles. She had always thought of that card as Lorna, warm and kind. Lorna might not say much, but she was always so willing and happy to stand by her siblings.

Wanda wondered what she would be if she hadn't been in that car accident. Wanda had remembered arriving at home from school to find it empty. Peter had come home shortly after, eating a box of twinkies she'd known he'd lifted. He hadn't known what was going on either.

Hours later they had found out about the accident. Their father had been driving Lorna to get ice cream: she'd been something of a favorite with him. There had been an accident, and the car had been knocked off the road and down a mountain.

By the time rescue crews had got there, their father had bled out. Lorna was miraculously unharmed, but she had been there as their father gave his last breaths. Wanda later figured out that her baby sister had bent the metal to protect herself, perhaps even discovering her powers in the process. She'd been nine, and Wanda and Peter found out they weren't the only ones in the family with a gift.

Nonetheless, Lorna had been silent for months afterwards. She had always seemed small before, but she had suddenly seemed even smaller. When their mother had found out about their abilities things had only gotten worse. Lorna was too young to take that kind of condemnation.

She pulled out another card: The Empress. She smiled. The Empress was her card. That was all three of them, her, Lorna, and Peter. Now all she had to do was figure out what was in their future. Wanda smiled again and pulled out the next card.

The smile fell from her face: Judgment. She chewed her lip. Peter had had too many skirmishes with the law for her not to be nervous about that card. With everything that he'd said about Magneto she'd been even more nervous about him lately.

Not that she disagreed with him entirely. She had heard the same speech that Peter had, felt the same thrill through her when she realized that, somewhere out there, someone was fighting to make them free.

A future without fear was an intoxicating one. Sometimes Wanda was scared to serve meals at the diner, sure that they must be able to see through her disguise as an ordinary person. She lived in fear of someone, somewhere, knowing that she was different.

When she was younger she was sure that she would be dissected like some lab rat somewhere. When she'd started to read less comics she'd become less sure. People wouldn't really do that. This was real life, not science fiction, and she wasn't some child who would succumb to such fantasies.

Then they had unveiled the Sentinel program. Even though it had been cancelled it told her that, at least at one point, the government had considered using giant robots to fight mutants the world over. Robots. If that wasn't science fiction, she didn't know what was.

Part of her said that they would just be used against people like Magneto, but they would be able to identify mutants. That was the part that concerned her more than anything: she wouldn't be able to hide. If they took that away from her, then it wouldn't be long before they started taking other things from her too.

That fear was obviously getting to Peter. She couldn't blame him. There were other mutants out there, but Wanda had the feeling that they were unique. Neither of their parents were mutants, but all three of them had become mutants. They didn't have anyone older than them to guide them, no one who had been through it before.

Yet, they had each other. It was something that probably made them stronger, but it gave her more to be concerned about. She worried about Peter, worried about her baby sister. They only had to slip up once for everything to come crashing down.

She drew another card, and furrowed her brow. It was Temperance. It was all things made new. She didn't often see it after Judgment. Judgment had always seemed so final to her. To be able to rebuild after that was strange.

Wanda picked Temperance up and held it next to Judgment. The cards stared at her, unyielding. She didn't know what to make of it, if there even was anything that she was supposed to make of it.

Something strange was brewing inside of her. She put the cards down. The other three cards stared back at her: The Fool, The Queen of Pentacles, and The Empress. Whatever it was that was coming was going to effect all three of them.

Wanda glanced at the clock. It was time to get going. She picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. There was always the possibility that she was just overthinking things. She looked at the cards, and then picked them up so that she could stuff them under her mattress.

* * *

><p>Peter numbly blasted asteroids, his mind deep in thought. Magneto's words were echoing around in his head, cajoling and urging him to stop being afraid. His own feelings were egging him on and reaching out to him.<p>

Despite what he knew his sister thought of him, Peter did have a brain. He knew that he should be more careful in the future, more secretive and hidden. Doing that would keep him safe. It would keep his sisters safe.

The problem was, Peter didn't want to be safe. He had never wanted to be safe. Safe was his mother, had been his father. Safe was the dweebs whose pockets he picked. Safe was boring and predictable, and Peter did not want to live like that.

He wanted to live freely, to run around the city as much as he wanted without fear of censure. Peter wanted to jump off buildings to see if he could outrun his fall, test who he was and what he could do. He wanted to leave safe behind and never think about it again.

He knew he could go faster than a speeding bullet, knew that he could make his hands vibrate so fast that it shattered glass. Metal was harder, impossible at the moment, but he wasn't as concerned about that. Lorna could help him out if he ran into a roadblock there.

But that was the problem: his sisters. He looked over his shoulder. Lorna was reading a book in one of his armchairs, licking the cream from a twinkie off her fingers. If not for them then then the house would have been in his rearview mirror years ago.

Not that he blamed them. Lorna was really young and shy. He couldn't go around throwing caution to the wind. Not when it meant putting a girl who wasn't even in high school in danger. She still wasn't really equipped to defend herself.

Wanda was still nervous about her powers. He kind of got it. Running really fast was cool, but they didn't know if Wanda's powers had limits, and that freaked her out. It was also a little less controllable, made worse by how she was scared to experiment. If people came for her, she could end up getting hurt or killing them all. The second option didn't bother him, but the first did.

The Pentagon had been a stupid idea. He knew that now, but he when would he get a chance to live like that, to have things be exciting? The last thing that had crossed his mind when he had taken that job was how his sisters would be affected. It should have been the first.

Even so, he kept hearing Magneto in his ear. It didn't have to be like that. They could all leave safe behind together and finally start living. Peter needed to take the first step though. Peter knew Wanda wouldn't. If he could convince her then everything would work out. Lorna would be easy: she would always follow them wherever they went.

He shot another few asteroids. He needed to talk to Wanda, make her understand. They couldn't live the rest of their lives just being safe.


	3. Chapter 3

Lorna always had trouble sleeping, ever since the car crash. On most nights she would take a book and read it until she fell asleep. When it was really bad she would find Wanda, Peter, or her mother, and they would wordlessly shuffle over.

The past few nights hadn't been good. Ever since Magneto had appeared on TV everyone in her family had been tense. She understood exactly what he had said, despite Wanda and Peter shushing each other whenever she came into the room.

Lorna wished they wouldn't exclude her. Magneto was an object of great curiosity for her. No matter what he had done, they still had the same mutation. He had done amazing things on the TV, and Lorna wondered when she would be able to do that.

So she was wide awake when the men came to their house at two in the morning. She walked up to the window and rested her arms on the sill. The cars that pulled up by the sidewalk were sleek and black, well made. They were also in good condition. She could feel her skin thrumming with the presence of such beautiful metal so close to her.

There were a lot of them though. She wondered what they were doing in her neighborhood, but then they started to walk up to the front porch. Lorna bit her lip and shrank down as they rang the doorbell. She had the feeling she wasn't supposed to see them now.

She stepped away from the window and headed down the hallway. Peter's room was closest to her, but it was empty. Had he fallen asleep on the couch again? She wasn't sure. Lorna considered going downstairs, but her mother's footfalls from her first floor bedroom were already echoing. Her mother would let the men in soon, and then she knew that she wouldn't have a chance to ask questions.

So she continued on to Wanda's bedroom. Lorna knocked a few times. There was some shuffling downstairs just as the door opened. Feeling her nerves ignite, Lorna pushed the door open and scurried inside, shutting the door behind her.

Her sister had just gotten up, her hair falling messily around her head.

"Lorna?" she asked.

"There are men at the door," Lorna said.

Wanda jumped out of bed. She grabbed her red bathrobe from a nearby hook and cinched the belt around her waist.

"What were they wearing?" she asked.

"They were in black suits and sunglasses," Lorna said, "They look like those guys from _Get Smart_, but not as funny."

There was a noise downstairs and some muted cursing. Wanda grabbed Lorna's shoulder so tightly that it hurt.

"No," Wanda whispered.

"Wanda?" Lorna asked, scared.

Wanda didn't answer. She just grabbed Lorna's hand and hurried downstairs. Halfway down the staircase Lorna saw her mother arguing with one of the men in the suits. Another two were dragging her brother towards the door. He'd been handcuffed and, although groggy, she could see that he was scared.

"What are you doing?" Wanda shouted.

She let go of Lorna's hand and hurried down the stairs. Lorna watched as Wanda grabbed onto one of the men's arms, but he just shoved her back. Wanda stumbled over her feet and fell on the ground.

Lorna went down the final steps, running to her sister's side. Wanda ignored her and got back up, but one of the men stepped in front of her.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down," he said.

"What are you doing with my brother?" she yelled.

"Wanda."

Lorna watched her mother put a shaking hand on Wanda's shoulder. Wanda shook it off angrily.

"What is going on?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, your brother is a suspect in the recent escape of the terrorist known as Magneto," the man said, "I would ask that you calm down."

"But you can't...he hasn't been charged yet!" Wanda said, "I know enough from TV to know you can't just do that!"

"Special division," one of the men said.

Her sister turned a shade paler.

* * *

><p>Wanda could feel her heart beat faster at the words 'special division.' She willed herself to wake up, to find out that this was just another one of her reoccurring nightmares. They had all been so close to making it.<p>

She looked at Peter. She could see fear there. Wanda wanted to scream at him for going into the Pentagon. She wanted to ask him why he hadn't run when the men had come. She wanted to ask why he had the ability to sleep through anything, why they'd had the chance to cuff him.

Instead she watched as he licked his lips nervously.

"Guys, you've got me," he said, "You cuffed my hands and feet. Can I say goodbye?"

The two men holding him gave him a distasteful look, but a third nodded.

"I don't see the harm in it," he said.

"Are you kidding?" asked one of the men from the doorframe, "You saw what he did on camera-"

"He's a kid for crissakes!" the man near Wanda said, "Give him two minutes."

The men holding Peter loosened their grips. Wanda ran forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly to keep the tears in.

"It's gonna be fine," he said weakly, "Just um, go back to bed, and I'll talk to you when I get my phone call, okay?"

"You're not going to get a phone call," Wanda whispered.

Peter lowered his voice, the words breaking slightly.

"I know," he said, "But Lorna doesn't."

Wanda felt the tears escape.

"They don't know bout you guys. Not yet," he whispered, "It's just the Pentagon, just an arrest, so it's gonna be fine for you guys. Take care."

Her heart sank. She let go of Peter just as Lorna wrapped her arms around his waist. He looked down at her.

"Hey, it'll be fine," he said.

He looked up at their mother, who looked back at him with an expression that Wanda could only describe as frightened. Wanda wanted to scream at her, to ask why she wasn't stopping what was happening. Did she not understand? If she understood then she would try to stop it.

Peter turned away from her, squaring his shoulders.

"Okay Untouchables," he said, "Let's roll."

The two men grabbed his arms and began dragging him out. The men followed and Lorna burst into tears. Wanda watched him go, tears streaming down her own face, her heart pounding wildly. Her hands clenched into fists and she took a harsh breath.

She ran to the porch, both of her hands on the doorframe. It was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe as she watched the men shove her brother towards the car. His face had become grim, his eyes set.

Her fingernails began drawing blood as she dug them deeper and deeper into her palms.

"What are they gonna do with this one?" she heard one of the men mutter.

She wondered if they didn't think she was listening and, truth be told, she could barely hear them over the pounding in her head.

"Dunno. He's one of those freaks, so I think there's a spare dissection table with his name on it in Canada," the other said.

Wanda felt the pounding stop. This wasn't just an arrest. This truly was her worst nightmare. She thought of all of her fears as a child, fears that had multiplied as Lorna turned out to be like them. She couldn't let them come true.

She ran forwards, screaming Peter's name. He turned and two of the men turned towards her. They grabbed her arms and began to pull her back. Peter yelled out her name as they yanked her towards the house, but one of the men shoved his head inside the car and slammed the door.

Wanda remembered Peter's words. She remembered how he wanted her to take care of Lorna, for them to stay under the radar. She gave a little laugh then, tears on her lips and fury in her heart.

"You're still a moron," she seethed.

One of the men looked down at her, but Wanda had already made up her mind. She concentrated, and the arms that they were holding began to glow. She could feel her powers beneath her skin and in her heart, felt the force and the tension. Wanda wrapped it around her in her mind, and then pushed it out.

The men on either side of her went flying. The men getting into the car with her brother hurriedly got inside and two other men leveled their guns. She pushed out again, shoving them away in a shower of sparks.

A bullet grazed her arm. She whipped around and saw the two men who were standing by her house. Lorna and her mother were standing in the doorway. Lorna's eyes were wide and watching. Her mother looked as though the world was collapsing.

Wanda concentrated on the men's guns and, suddenly, they were gone. They looked up at her and she waved her hand. Wanda wasn't sure what she wanted to do until the men fell to the ground, screaming as burns appeared o their hands and faces.

There was a squeal of rubber. She turned and saw that the car with Peter in it was taking off. Wanda hurried down the pathway, but the car suddenly stopped. The tires were screaming, but she could see that the hubcaps were being held still.

Her eyes flickered back to her little sister. Lorna was on her knees, chewing on her lip and clutching the welcome mat in her hands.

"Good girl," Wanda said.

When she looked back at the car the car doors flew open and the men's seatbelts suddenly unbuckled. She stalked forward, stretching out her fingertips. The men were hurled from the car and onto the pavement.

Peter clambered out of the car, his hands and feet still cuffed.

"You idiot!" he yelled, "I'm not worth it!"

Wanda ran up and threw her arms around him.

"Yes," she said, "You are."

Peter took a harsh breath. He wiggled in her grasp, allowing him to put his cuffed hands over her neck.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"It's okay," she said, "It's going to be okay."

"It's not going to be okay!"

Wanda looked over her shoulder. Her mother was clutching her bathrobe around her with one hand and holding onto Lorna with the other.

"You just took down eight government agents," her mother said, "Do you know what happens to people who do that?"

"I know," Wanda snapped.

She ducked under Peter's arms and stood in front of her mother, her arms crossed.

"I knew from the moment I stepped off that porch," she said.

"Then why?" her mother said, "You're supposed to be the smart one! I don't have a lot, but we could get a lawyer and-"

"My family comes first," Wanda said.

She walked towards her mother and pulled Lorna to her feet. Lorna was crying again, and Wanda held her close.

"I've got you," she said.

Picking her sister up, Wanda walked over to Peter.

"I know this is tough, but could you get his cuffs off?" she whispered.

Lorna nodded, biting her lip. Her sister closed her eyes and, a second later, Peter's cuffs were off. Lorna reached out to Peter and he held Lorna close. It was only then that Wanda began to notice that people had come out onto their porches, staring at them.

They were people she had known for years, but they were looking at her differently now. The look in their eyes made her take a step back. She could feel Peter at her back, and it made her feel more solid, more real.

"What are you going to do now?" her mother said, "They're going to come back!"

"Please just shut up for a minute mom," Peter snapped.

He looked over at Wanda.

"We can't stay here," he said.

There was the shriek of a siren in the distance.

"No," Wanda said, "We can't."

Peter shifted Lorna and put a hand on Wanda's shoulder.

"We have to leave," he said.

She wanted to argue, but he was right. The sirens were getting louder, and there were more of them. Wanda wondered how bright her light had been. How many fire trucks were coming? How many neighbors had called for fire trucks and how many for the police?

Wanda looked at her mother. She was angry and afraid. Again, had she actually understood what had happened that night? How things could have been much worse? Wanda doubted it. She doubted her mother understood much of anything when it came to them. When it came down to it, she was the odd one out.

She looked at the second car that the men had come in.

"Let's go then," she said.


	4. Chapter 4

"That's how you switch gears. Be careful with that, because it could save your life."

Lorna looked up from the dashboard, her small hands on the wheel. Peter was sitting next to her, his fingers twitching. Some part of him always had to be moving. It often distracted her, mostly because she wondered why he was in such a hurry.

She supposed it had to do with what his mutation did, but she had thought that, maybe, there was somewhere else he was trying to get to. Maybe there was something just beyond his reach that he was trying to grasp, that he felt he could get to if he just ran fast enough.

Whatever it was, it meant that his piggy backs had always been really fun.

"Lorna, hey, eyes forward."

She did so, looking at the various knobs. Lorna knew from reading that she was too young to be learning how to drive a car. Peter and Wanda had talked about it though, and decided that it was necessary. She couldn't run like Peter, and she wasn't as strong as Wanda. She might have to drive them both if they were injured.

Ever since they had left home things had been different. They had left their mother at the house, not going back in for clothes or identification. Lorna had thought of her books, but her siblings had said that they needed to leave immediately. So she had gone, eager not to be left behind.

They had driven for an hour before Wanda had gotten out and done something to the car. She'd seen her sister put her hands on it and, a few minutes later, it was a cherry red. The license plate had been different. Her sister was amazing.

Three hours later they had stopped near a department store. Peter had gone in and come out a few minutes later with a whole bunch of clothes and $100. Wanda had given him a look, but he'd shrugged. They'd driven for thirty minutes before stopping at a gas station for snacks, the bathroom, and a chance to change clothes.

Lorna had fallen asleep after that. They had driven on for the next three days, and Lorna thought that they were heading towards Canada through New England. They had stopped in New York and checked into a hotel. Peter told her it was temporary, and she figured that meant they would be heading to Canada in a few weeks.

Lorna assumed that their mother would join them there. At least, she hoped they would. She had been too scared to ask when they had first left, but she'd known that she had to go with her siblings. Surely her mother would come soon too.

For now, they were in a grass lot not too far from the hotel, her brother trying to teach her how to drive.

"Okay, now you know the basics," Peter said, "Can you reach the gas pedal?"

Lorna slid down a bit. She hated being so short, hated looking so much younger than she was. Her foot rested on the gas pedal and, with some maneuvering, she could still see above the wheel through the windshield.

She pressed down and the car began to creep forward. Lorna turned the wheel, and they slowly navigated the corner of the grass lot.

"You can speed up you know," Peter said, tapping his fingers on the dashboard again.

"You always want everyone to speed up," said Lorna.

"True," Peter agreed, "But you really should go faster. You're never gonna get anywhere at this speed. Just put a little more pressure on the gas pedal."

Lorna tried to, but slipped on the seat. Instead of increasing the pressure by a little bit, she fell and slammed her entire body weight on the pedal. The car jerked forward and Lorna slammed her head against the steering wheel. Her teeth clipped her lip and Lorna saw stars.

She let go of the wheel just as they reached a corner. Peter reached out and jerked the car to the side with one hand. He grabbed Lorna by the scruff of her jacket and pulled her up to her seat with the other hand.

The car slowed and Peter shifted gears, stopping the car.

"You okay?" he asked.

Lorna nodded. She touched her lip and noticed that it was bleeding.

"Aw hell," Peter said.

He grabbed some tissues from the glove compartment and began dabbing her lip.

"Sorry bout that," he said.

Lorna shrugged. She pulled her feet up so that they rested on the driver's seat, her knees up to her chin. Peter glanced at the clock.

"I think the lesson is over for today," he said, "Wanda's gonna be home soon."

She nodded and climbed into the passenger's seat. At the same time, Peter climbed over and sat in the driver's seat. He started the car and headed back to the apartment. Lorna could see that his other hand was tapping the dashboard again. He'd go faster if he could in the car, but Wanda had said that the last thing they needed was speeding tickets.

"You did good," Peter said.

Lorna snorted.

"For your first try," Peter said, "Besides, how many thirteen-year-olds get to drive?"

"I'm thirteen next month," said Lorna.

"I was rounding," Peter said, "But that's even cooler! I woulda loved driving at your age. Bikes were too slow."

He frowned.

"Until I started being able to outrun bullets," he said, "Then everything else became too slow."

He pulled up to the apartment. Lorna saw Wanda walking down the street carrying groceries. She had cut her long hair and Lorna had felt like crying when she'd seen. Her sister had always had such beautiful hair, and now it was gone. Her sister had also done other things to look different, but Lorna hadn't really paid attention to them all. Wanda had insisted that it was necessary. Both her siblings were insisting that a lot of things were necessary now.

Like learning how to drive a car.

"Alright, we beat her by a minute," Peter said.

He parked and got out, waving to Wanda. She looked tired, but waved back at him. Lorna waved too, and Wanda frowned as she got closer.

"What happened to your lip?" she asked.

Peter coughed.

"I hit my head on the steering wheel," Lorna shrugged.

Wanda rolled her eyes at Peter. She gave Lorna a long look before looking around. Lorna looked around too. There was no one there.

"I think I can fix that," Wanda said.

"Really?" Lorna asked.

Her sister was so cool.

"I think I fixed a burn earlier today," she said, "Same thing. Kind of."

"What are the limitations on your powers again?" Peter asked.

"When I start feeling like I'm going to throw up my liver, that's when I stop," said Wanda.

"Yuck."

"Grow up."

She walked over to Lorna and put her finger on Lorna's lip. Lorna felt a warm tingly sensation, then something warm and sharp running down her nose. It dripped onto her dress, and Lorna realized that her nose was bleeding.

"Holy shit!" Peter said.

Wanda quickly grabbed some napkins out of her pocket to stem the flow. Peter came over with the tissues from earlier. Between the two of them trying to stem the flow, Lorna felt like she was being suffocated.

She grabbed the napkins Wanda gave her and pinched her nose, tilting her head down to get some air. It worked, and she found herself breathing more comfortably.

"I'm so sorry," Wanda said, "That wasn't supposed to happen."

Lorna held the napkins under nose and tried to shrug. She wondered why they were so worried. It was just a nosebleed. When it stopped Wanda and Peter took her inside, shielding her from the view of the hotel's other patrons. Wanda helped wash the blood out of her shirt, still looking guilty.

"I'm sorry," she said again.

Lorna shrugged again. It wasn't like she was in pain or anything. Still, she kept pressure on her nose as she went upstairs. Wanda and Peter insisted she go upstairs and wash her face and change her clothes. Lorna figured people at the hotel would ask questions if she had blood all over her clothes.

Again, necessity.

* * *

><p>"Did you feel like you were going to throw up your liver when you did that?" Peter asked.<p>

"Shut up," Wanda said angrily.

She stormed past him and began scrubbing her hands at the sink in the bathroom. Peter put his hands in his pockets.

"It's no big deal," he said, "You saw her face: she wasn't bothered."

"Well I was," Wanda snapped.

She rested her hands on the sink and bowed her head.

"I don't want this thing to hurt anyone," she said.

"Hey, it's no big deal," Peter said.

Wanda looked over her shoulder at him. She hesitated before speaking.

"Do you think we made the right choice with her?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Peter frowned.

Wanda let go of the sink and pressed her back to it.

"She's really young Peter," she said, "And what we're doing...Peter, it's dangerous."

"She helped fight those suits too," Peter said, "She'd get into trouble if she went back."

"They wouldn't have known it was her necessarily," said Wanda, "They might have just thought it was me."

"What were we supposed to do?" Peter snorted, "Leave her with mom?"

"You make it sound like she would have thrown her out on the street!"

He crossed his arms.

"I don't know what mom would've done," he said, "But my point is, I wasn't gonna leave her behind, okay? And let's be honest, neither were you."

Wanda bit her lip.

"We all stick together," Peter said.

"We should have found somewhere safe for her."

There was that word again, 'safe.' Wanda might have been better at knowing what he was feeling than anyone he'd ever met, but sometimes she could be just as dense as any other idiot they walked by on the street.

"I don't want us to be safe Wanda," he said, "I want us to live. We've had this discussion. It's why we're going to New York."

"How do you even know he's in New York?" snapped Wanda.

"Snatches of conversation. New York kept coming up when they thought I wasn't listening," Peter said, "Those guys he was with, they were slick. Well-financed. Not the greatest thinkers, but they had their own plane."

"Rich people don't just come from New York," sighed Wanda.

He rolled his eyes. Why did she have to keep coming back to this? It wasn't as though Magneto handed out flyers saying where he was.

"Even if he isn't in NYC, then he'll show up eventually," Peter said, "And when he does, we'll just go and find him."

He snapped his fingers.

"In the meantime, NYC's supposed to be big right?" he asked, "Looks huge on the TV. We can lose ourselves there for awhile. We just need to lie low for a day or two more here, make it look like we're interested in settling somewhere before we go on. Throw the Feds off our trail."

Looking down Wanda left her position by the sink.

"Peter, does he even accept children?" she said.

A slight doubt crept across his mind, one he'd had frequently when he thought of whether or not Magneto would accept them.

"They have to," Peter said, "It's not like they'd be using Lorna for missions for crissakes. I don't think they have babysitters or anything, but she can stay by herself for a few hours. And she's a mutant. They'll accept her."

"And if they don't?" said Wanda.

Peter dug his nails into his arms.

"Don't worry," Peter said, "They will."


	5. Chapter 5

New York City was three times as big as Peter had thought it would be. He looked out the window of his hotel, wondering just what he was doing there. Wanda was taking a shower, which was good, since she wasn't there to see him rub his temples and sigh.

"Peter?"

He turned, and Lorna looked up at him. She was sitting on the edge of her bed and reading a book. He'd stolen a few from a library, because she always seemed to be reading. Lorna, more than him or Wanda, had loved stories of dragons and princesses. It explained all those costumes that, first his mother, and then Wanda, had sewn for her.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

Yes, something was wrong. Despite his hopes, Magneto hadn't shown up immediately. He supposed it would be silly to think that he would, but Peter had been unable to keep himself from hoping. It would've made things so much easier.

Magneto had refused to show at all actually, and it was all dead news as far as he was concerned. Peter had read the headlines about the end of the Sentinel program, but nothing else. No grand revolution, nothing that Magento had promised.

Maybe it had all been a dream, and nothing more. Maybe the new world order was not coming. If it wasn't, then that meant that Peter and his sisters were in the lurch, alone and friendless with the government on their tail.

He'd realized this by the time they had gotten to New York. The vastness of the city was intimidating, and the close quarters they were all sharing were not helping. They had checked into a hotel room and Lorna had asked if she could go out. Wanda had said that they needed to lie low. She had shrugged, as she so often did, and then cracked open a book.

He wondered if they should tell his little sister a bit more about why they were there, but considering they had been there a week and Magneto hadn't showed, he supposed that there wasn't any point.

"Just trying to figure out what to do next," he said.

"Okay," Lorna said.

He laughed.

"That's all?" he said, "I just told you that I didn't know what to do, and you just say okay."

Lorna looked at him with her big green eyes.

"It doesn't matter," she said, "I mean, I miss mom, and I kinda miss our house but it's still okay."

And then his little sister smiled.

"I've still got you guys," she said, "That's all that matters. That's all that's ever mattered."

Peter felt his throat choke up. He looked away, and saw Wanda staring at him. He had no idea when she had gotten out of the shower, or how much she had heard. He supposed that she had heard enough: she was looking at him with that same guilt-stricken look that he knew he must have too.

The truth about Magneto had been bad enough, but this new truth was even worse. They had gotten themselves into a mess, dragged their little sister along with them, and now they had no clue how to make things right. Even so, Lorna had complete faith that they would fix everything.

It would've been damn funny if it wasn't the worst thing Peter had ever heard.

"I need to go out," he said.

"Where?" Wanda asked.

"Just out," he muttered, grabbing a hoodie and some sunglasses, "I'll be fine."

"The police are looking for us," Wanda said.

"I know," he said, "I can keep my head down for a bit. I'll be back soon."

He zipped up the hoodie and put on the sunglasses. He pulled up his hood.

"I'll be back soon," he repeated.

Not looking behind him, he ran out of the hotel room and locked the door behind him. Peter wanted to run straight onto the street, to forget everything that he was thinking about, but running too fast would raise suspicions. Sudden gusts of wind didn't often happen inside of buildings.

So he had walked out onto the street, feeling like the world's biggest asshole. At least Wanda could comfort herself with the knowledge that the whole thing hadn't been her idea. Peter had no such luck.

He could feel himself start to get nervous. Peter had gotten to New York on a few lines of conversation. He'd never confessed to Wanda just how tenuous the lead was. Was the city even the best place? After a few days there he figured out that it was possible for Magneto to show up and for them to be too far away to find him when he did.

Slumping down onto a park bench, Peter sighed. He looked around for a moment, cataloging where he was. The United Nations. What had they ever done for anyone? He snorted to himself and slumped down deeper.

Maybe Wanda had been right about all of this. Maybe they could just go up to Canada and figure out what to do there. That had been the back up plan, the plan that he had promised Wanda that they would follow if this didn't work out.

It didn't look like it was working out, and they were running out of money. He would have to rob someone soon to make everything work. Either that or he would have to admit to Wanda that he hadn't told her about Xavier. She'd be angry, but it was still an option.

Although he hated planning ahead, perhaps it was time to start. He forced himself to take stock, as painful as it was. So far, they had Lorna, Wanda, and him. It wasn't bad really: he still had his siblings.

Lorna was the best little sister that he could possibly ask for. But Lorna was young. She'd need to go to school at one point or another. Peter had never really liked school, but Lorna was always reading.

God, she was only around thirteen. What were they doing, dragging her around with them? She liked princesses and reading stuff by Tolkien. She didn't belong on the lam with them. What if she got sick or something?

Yeah, it had been selfish to take her with them. But was it so bad to try to keep a family together? She was his sister, and he wasn't going to leave her in uncertain circumstances. Even if there hadn't been the threat of government crazies, he was going to keep them all together. They all needed to stay together.

He buried his head in his hands. What if this lasted a few years? They had been on the run for two months, and already he could tell that Wanda was getting antsy. Lorna was still too busy to fully grasp the amount of danger they were in.

But what would they do when they got older? Wanda was a good waitress, but he knew that his sister hated doing it. She didn't like people with their lousy tips and their messy ways. He'd never worked an honest day in his life himself. It had always been easier to just take things.

He couldn't even imagine what Canada would be like. All he could think about were moose and maple syrup. It most definitely did not sound like the kind of place he wanted to live in for the rest of his life. Xavier had seemed detached when he'd talked to him and Peter wasn't sure that, despite what he'd told him, he'd welcome three convicts on his doorstep.

It all came back to being safe. As much as Peter hated the word, he was starting to figure out why people latched onto it. If you weren't particularly creative, then maybe safety was all you could hope for in life.

Peter wasn't going to let safety get the better of him though. He was going to find a way to get around safety. There was no way that someone like him, someone like Wanda or like Lorna, were ever going to be satisfied being safe. They were all too good for that.

There was a crash and Peter jumped up. Two people were running out of the UN building, one of them with a briefcase in his hand. The crash had been the door, and Peter shrugged. If there was one thing he could appreciate about politicians, it was that they were always in a hurry.

He was about to turn away when he saw eight armed guards run after them. Peter sat up, taking a little more interest. He smirked when the guys got surrounded. At least he was going to have a little entertainment to take his mind off his troubles.

The smirk slid off his face as he saw one of the men use his tongue to grab one of the guard's wrists and yank him to the ground. Something was moving on the other guy's skin, he wasn't sure what, but two of the men next to him suddenly started gasping for breath.

Mutants. Peter wasn't sure if they were with Magneto or not, but just seeing other mutants made him feel a little bit better. Maybe he hadn't been the only one who had come to New York, hoping against hope that things could change. Maybe he hadn't been a complete idiot to bring his sisters with him.

He watched the two of them tackling the men around them and stood up. He took off his sunglasses, trying to get a better view. The two of them were killing it, and Peter couldn't help but be impressed.

Then he saw the snipers on the roof. Peter looked at the two men, saw that the one with the long tongue noticed them, was trying to say something to the other one. He turned, but the snipers had already found their marks.

Peter wasn't exactly sure what motivated him to move forward. He knew enough about himself to know that he could take all of the snipers down. It would be easy. What got him involved stemmed back to the fear that he had brought his sisters so far for nothing.

So he ran, wishing that he had his Walkman with him. He'd had to leave it, and his best mix tapes, at home. Oh well. He ran without music, ran out the frustration he was feeling. What did it matter what he did to the UN's snipers? He was already wanted.

He took their guns, tied their shoelaces together, and rifled through their wallets. He had a couple of bucks when he was done. Who knew that snipers carried so little change on them? He'd have to remember that later.

When he was done he ran down to the two men on the plaza and stopped. He heard the frustrated shouts and confusion from the balcony. Next to him the one with the long tongue turned to him curiously, taking down the one guard in front of him. Peter grinned at him and ran forwards, tackling the remaining two.

Once he was sure he was unconscious he ran in front of the men, stopping and clapping his hands together, removing imaginary dust.

"Nice ta meetcha," he grinned.

"Who are you?" the one with the long tongue said.

"Not sure it matters," the other said, "He just saved us."

He held out his hand. Peter could see that it was almost completely covered in tattoos.

"Ink," he said.

Peter grinned again and took his hand. Just as he did the doors opened and ten more guards rushed out. Peter let go of Ink's hand and got ready to knock them down, but they were suddenly lifted into the air. He saw the metal clips on their harnesses jingle before they were slammed into the opposing wall.

"You took too long."

Peter knew that voice. He turned, his grin hurting his face again. Magneto was standing there looking annoyed.

"You were supposed to be at the extraction point-" he began.

He stopped, and peered at Peter.

"I know you," he said, "You're awfully far from home, aren't you?"

"Nah," Peter said, "I think I'm right where I need to be."


	6. Chapter 6

"She's too young."

The words clanged around in Peter's ears. Alarm bells went off, and he felt his breath catch. He looked over at Wanda, who immediately put a protective arm around Lorna. They were in their hotel room at the moment. The two other mutants who had been with Magneto were there too.

He'd learned a few things on the way over. He'd learned that the one who had the long tongue was called Toad. He'd learned that Magneto had been recruiting, and Peter had been excited to think about the other mutants he might meet soon.

Not that he didn't have some reservations. Ink and Toad. Weird names, but he figured that they weren't that much weirder than Magneto. Maybe he'd have to come up with a weird name too. He'd been thinking of one while he introduced Magneto to Wanda, right up until the point when Magneto had looked at Lorna.

And then he'd spoken those damn words.

"What?" Peter asked.

Magneto sighed and shook his head.

"I have allowed the young to join our ranks in the past," he asked, "Given our species's current situation, it seems like it would be folly to turn down someone who is passionate about our cause."

He shook his head again. Peter wondered if his head rattled around in his helmet when he did that.

"Even so, the cutoff age for joining the Brotherhood is seventeen," he said, "I don't need any prepubescent hotheads among my ranks."

"Lorna is not-" Peter began.

"That I can see," said Magneto, "I say this not to be cruel, but I repeat: your sister is simply too young. It is too dangerous for her, and we cannot take her with us."

Peter gave a desperate glance at Wanda and Lorna. Lorna was starting to look nervous, and Wanda's eyes were narrowing. This was all going downhill far too fast.

"Well, obviously she's not gonna be on the battlefield or anything," Peter said, "I mean, you're right, she's pretty young-"

"I will not take ten-year-olds into battle," said Magneto.

"I'm twelve," Lorna said.

Her voice was so quiet and thin that Peter almost didn't hear her. Magneto turned to her briefly, searching. Lorna stared back at him, her green eyes determined.

"She's just about to turn thirteen," Peter said.

Magneto turned around and raised his eyebrows. He could see Wanda getting more irritated by the second. Just because Lorna looked tiny people kept making assumptions about her age. Now Magneto was using that assumption to back his own ideas.

"Do not lie to me," Magneto said.

"Seriously, that's how old she is!" Peter said, "I know she's small for her age and all, but that's her age!"

There was a long pause before Magneto threw his hands up.

"You are missing the point!"

"And what is the point?" Peter snapped.

"Ten or twelve, the difference is negligible," he said, "As is the difference between ten and thirteen. I said seventeen, and I meant seventeen. I am not some madman who is willing to send a child that young into the fight."

"Again, who said she had to start fighting right away?" Peter argued.

He saw Ink and Toad look at each other. Toad looked confused and Ink just looked concerned.

"That's not really safe," Toad said.

"Did we ask for your opinion?" said Wanda coldly.

Toad cocked his head at her before quickly averted his eyes. Peter didn't like the way that he swallowed afterwards.

"Toad makes a valid point," Magneto said, "While it is not safe for her to come onto the battlefields, it would also not be safe to leave her in a hideout when we go on our missions."

"And why not?" said Wanda.

"Because we are, at this point, rather high up on the most wanted list," Magneto said, "In fact, I think I might have topped it a few months ago."

"We're wanted too, and we've done just fine for the past couple of weeks," said Peter.

"You have been lucky, and it was foolish to bring such a young child with you during your escape," said Magneto.

Peter opened his mouth, but Magneto held up a hand. The sheer force of the gesture made him stop, and by the time he collected what he wanted to say again, Magneto had already begun speaking again.

"I am not doubting your capabilities. I know for a fact that you are resourceful, and from what you've told me your sister is as well," he said, "Even your youngest sister must have some iron in her, or you wouldn't have made it this far."

Inwardly Peter beamed. If nothing else, the had impressed Magneto. Given everything that Magneto stood for, what he was trying to do for their species, it was probably one of the best things that he could ever hear.

That feeling disappeared when he glanced down at Lorna. Lorna was looking at Magneto with wide eyes. They were no longer the frank, curious eyes that he loved about her, eyes that had dominated her when Magneto first walked into the room. They were uncertain and frightened now.

She knew exactly what was going on, knew that they were discussing her future.

"And I have no doubt that you are all strong, and your feelings of family do you all credit," Magneto said, "If half of the mutants felt as you three do, then I doubt our mission would be as complicated as it is."

He put his hand down.

"Peter, Wanda, we want you with us," he said, "Peter, your powers will be useful. You have no idea about the lives you could save. And Wanda, if half of what your brother said about you is true, then you are unlocking your true potential as a mutant. We can help you put that potential to good use."

Almost immediately he felt Wanda's questioning gaze on him. Perhaps he had been more than a little chatty on the way to the hotel.

"But the fact remains," Magneto said, "Lorna is too young."

"Too young to stay at a hideout for a few hours?" said Wanda, "She's been left home alone before, unfortunately."

Her voice was tinged with bitterness. There had been times when their mother had been out, when Peter had been in detention, and when Wanda had been working that Lorna had been alone. He'd always been grateful that she loved reading as much as she did. Otherwise difficulties might have occurred.

"I have," Lorna said.

This time Magneto didn't look at her. He directed his gaze to Wanda.

"I'm not certain that you fully understand what it is you're asking," Magneto said, "You're used to people chasing you right now. You're going to have to get used to people wanting you dead."

He tilted his head. Peter swallowed nervously as his eyes met Wanda's. She swallowed, her arm still around Lorna.

"When those kind of people storm your hideout, and find a child, what do you think they will do?" he asked, "Will they leave her alone? Of course not. Will they take her captive? Or will they just shoot her to be done with it, to leave a message?"

His voice lowered.

"I know what the type of people we're facing do to their captives," he said, "The latter option might be the most merciful."

Wanda bit her lip and looked down at Lorna.

"We could...I don't know..." she mumbled.

"A babysitting roster is unlikely to be a good idea, or even possible," Magneto said, "I'm sorry, but these are the realities of the Brotherhood."

His eyes found Peter's.

"Unless you're not ready for it?" he asked.

Peter felt his heart clench. He couldn't be left behind. They had come too far, had too much to lose. He thought of what he had thought about only hours before, how he didn't want safety. Safety was beneath him, and if he didn't go with Magneto, he would be embracing that safety. He would lose his chance to make a difference once and for all.

Even so, he looked down at Lorna. Her eyes were frightened when she looked at Magneto, but she was still looking at him with trust. All she had ever wanted was just to be with her siblings. It had seemed like such a simple thing when she'd said it.

He forced himself to turn back to Magneto.

"She has nowhere else to go," he said.

Magneto gave him a level look back. For the first time, Peter thought that he saw sympathy in his gaze. He had to use that. It was their last chance to be together.

"If we send her back, the Feds are gonna swoop in," he said, "If we're lucky. And even if they don't, she's gonna be all alone with mom, and mom doesn't know shit about raising mutants."

He clenched his hand into a fist.

"I can testify to that," he said.

Silence descended onto the room.

"There is a place that I know of," Magneto said.

Peter blinked at him, surprised.

"What-?"

"It's...something of a school," Magneto said, "A school for our kind. It's just getting off its feet. The man who runs it is...soft, but he can be trusted. In his own way he's a very fierce fighter, and he will protect his students."

Inwardly his heart soared. Yes, that would be perfect. They could put Lorna there, visit occasionally, come back when she was older and ready to come with them. She would be safe and Wanda and he would be free to begin their quest.

Immediately after the thoughts brightened his mind, he became ashamed. He was actually thinking about leaving his little sister behind. He couldn't do that, no matter who she was with or where they were putting her.

Peter drew himself up.

"She comes with us, or we don't come," he said.

Magneto glared at him. Peter tried to match it, but he wasn't sure if he could. There was a rather creepy intensity behind it, in all truthfulness.

"Sir?"

His little sister's voice cut through the room.

"I wanna come with you, and not just cause I'm a mutant," she said, "I think you know things."

Magneto looked away from Peter and focused on Lorna. Peter's mouth went dry. Of all the times for Lorna to decide to speak up.

"Pardon?" Magneto asked.

"You know things I wanna know," Lorna said.

A low chuckle began in Magneto's throat. He knelt in front of Lorna.

"Trust me," he said, "You don't want to know what I know."

"I wanna know how you did that stuff with the Sentinels," she said, "They were supposed to attack mutants, but they didn't."

"Despite the media focus on my behavior, you'll find that the president at the time had authorized a program to-"

"Not why you did it," Lorna said, "How. I can't do living metal like that."

Suddenly Magneto looked a lot more interested.

"Living metal?" he asked.

"With electricity," Lorna said, "It's very hard to control. It's like it has a mind of its own."

"It does feel that way," chuckled Magneto.

This time the laughter was much warmer. Peter's mouth went dry, and he looked at Wanda. She put her finger to her lips and watched the two intently.

"So, you control metal, do you?" Magneto asked, "Your brother didn't mention that."

It had slipped his mind. At least he'd been able to tell him that both of his sisters were mutants.

"Yes," Lorna said, "But I wanna learn more. Can you teach me?"

She clasped her hands behind her back.

"And then, if anyone comes in and tries to kill me, I can get them first," she said, "They'll never suspect. I look too young to be threatening."

Her voice broke slightly. Magneto looked at her a little longer. His gaze was more intense now, but it still had that searching quality. Lorna continued to look back at him. Peter could see that she was frightened, but it had been coated with that curiosity.

Magneto got up and nodded to himself.

"Alright then," he said, "She can come."

Relief coursed through him. Wanda walked over to Lorna, hugging her, but Magneto put an arm around Peter's shoulder and drew him closer.

"If she is ever a burden to us, or if the danger becomes to great, she goes to that school," Magneto hissed.

Peter fought to keep a straight face.

"Understood?" Magneto said.

"Understood."


	7. Chapter 7

Things had moved very quickly after Magneto had accepted Lorna. They had left the hotel that night after forwarding the money for another two days. Mangeto said it was necessary to give them the head start that they needed.

They had all gotten into a van. The trip had taken three hours. Lorna had taken out a book, smiling quietly to herself as she read. Peter felt like smiling too: when had his little sister gotten so sly? It didn't really matter though. She was with them, and he'd ask questions later.

The hideout was definitely a downgrade from the hotel, but Peter figured that he wasn't going to spend much time lounging around there anyway. He was going to be doing daring deeds, plunging himself into the heart of the action.

Or so he'd thought. The first thing he'd been given was a remarkable amount of books to read. Peter hated reading: it was the one thing that he couldn't do in a hurry. Sure, he could steal a book out of someone's bag quickly, but processing words actually took time.

Magneto had insisted that he and Wanda be ready at all times for various conditions. Peter was learning Morse code, sign language, the latest communication technology, how to disable alarms and properly break down doors.

Although Peter could see why Magneto wanted him to learn the other stuff, the last two he didn't get. He was too fast for alarms. Magneto knew that he could take a door down. He just had to put his palms flat against it and vibrate them. It would splinter after seconds.

He had, in a moment of what he know knew to be idiocy, pointed this out to Magneto. The response had been frosty.

"I am not unaware of your gifts. But if movement trips alarms, if the door does not splinter cleanly, then your powers will be a hindrance to you."

Peter had felt like an idiot afterwards, and he figured that Magneto wanted him to feel that way. He was feeling a bit out of his depth. Toad and Ink were cool guys, but they had been part of the Brotherhood for months. They knew a lot more than he did.

Toad was a little weird though. Every time Wanda came into the room he would scurry out of her way. If she needed something he would offer it, so on and so forth. Wanda had noticed, and was duly irritated. Peter thought it was kind of funny. Toad had no idea how far out of his league he really was.

Ink was a bit more thoughtful, a bit more willing to take his time. Lorna ended up talking to him a lot. With nothing else to do she began to read the same manuals that Peter did. He didn't think that she understand a lot of what they said, but neither did he.

In some respects it felt like going back to school. Peter had always hated school, mostly because he couldn't see the point. He had always known that he wasn't going to grow up and go to college, be a stuffed suit like everyone else. Even at fourteen he'd known that he didn't want to be safe.

This was different though. This was actually giving him the tools that he needed, or at least that's what he told himself. Every day he went through combat training with someone. The most common was this woman named Astra.

God, he hated Astra. She'd snorted when she'd seen Lorna, and that had been an automatic black mark in his book. Astra treated Lorna like she was a nuisance, even though Lorna spend most of her time staying out of people's way, and that had gotten to him.

One day she's shoved her out of the way when she went to get something. Peter had leapt to his feet but, for once, someone else was faster than him. Magneto had stepped in front of her and narrowed his eyes.

"You're not an animal. Ask her to move if she is in your way," Magneto had said, "But we do not abuse children here."

To his surprise, Astra had mumbled an apology and walked away. He'd never seen her so passive. She was always so aggressive during combat training, and it pissed him off because he wasn't allowed to use his powers. If he had, he'd win every match.

As it was, he was losing every match. His arms and legs ached, and there were multiple bruises. Wanda was racking up the bruises too, but it was different for her. She hadn't gotten into the same amount of fights he had. She wasn't used to winning all the time.

Outside of the ring he lifted weights, dreaming of the day when he would be able to knock Astra's smug smile off her face. She was fairly easy to hate. Even Wanda agreed with him. They both cherished the look on her face when Magneto told her off.

Through it all, Peter looked forward to his first mission. It was coming, it had to be. He'd been training for months. He knew better than to ask about it though. He didn't want another one of those cold glares from Magneto. And he'd thought having a father who thought he was a bit of an idiot was bad.

His feelings about Magneto, however, were a bit more complicated than that. Magneto had a tendency to seem distant, even when he was in the hideout. He disappeared often and would come back nicked and scarred, but he would never say anything. Sometimes Ink or Toad would accompany him, so they would give Peter a few details. Other times they were just as silent as he was.

It was a bit baffling to him. How could a man defend a child one moment, and then stay so aloof for the rest of the time? Peter had no clue. Then again, he wasn't responsible for the fate of an entire species like Magneto was.

Although Magneto had mentioned a school for mutants, Peter got the feeling that they were the only ones actually protecting mutants. The school might serve as some sort of sanctuary, but you couldn't hide forever. Besides, what would mutants get that was useful there? Their times tables? More of the drivel that Peter had learned about in school?

No. This was the only school worth having. Peter didn't care what anyone else said, or what other decisions were made out there in the world. As the days passed, life in the hideout began to seem more real than anything he had experienced in the suburbs. At least here he had a purpose.

And when Magneto tapped his shoulder one day and beckoned for him to come with them, Peter couldn't help but be excited. He'd looked around for Wanda to tell her to join, but she wasn't around. Lorna was the only one there, and she seemed to know exactly what Peter wanted.

"Want me to get Wanda?" she asked.

Magneto shook his head.

"This mission will work better with two," he said, "Your sister's gifts, while useful, are not required for this. All I need your brother's speed."

Peter grinned. Finally, it was happening.

"You'll get him back soon enough."

Lorna gave Peter a worried look, but he just grinned back and followed Magneto out. It was interesting to see Magneto in normal clothes, walking along the street as if he blended in. Peter walked too, anxiously trying to keep up with him.

They got into the car after a bit and began driving.

"This should be simple," Magneto said, "I found some offices that are a cover for a particular government organization. They don't have a name quite yet, and I need to find out more about them."

He parked at a corner.

"This should be a quick in and out, even though the door has a card key," he said, "Just go to the room of their executive officer and put this into his computer. His name is Kelly."

Magneto pulled out what looked like a black square. Peter took the square and turned it around. A dull memory flashed as to what this was. It looked like there had been a reason to read all of those manuals after all.

Otherwise he'd have had no idea how to use a floppy disk.

"Kelly, like a girl?" Peter asked.

"It's his last name. As for the disk, it's got a virus coded into it," Magneto explained, "Put it in, and it will download all of their data while corrupting their system. Whoever they are, slowing them down for a few weeks couldn't hurt."

Peter nodded and put the floppy disk into his upper pocket.

"I want this to be quick," said Magneto, "As I said, in and out. No one sees you, no one asks questions. Best case scenario is that they never even know that you were there."

He made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

"If someone shoots at you, you've done something wrong," he said.

Peter nodded, his throat dry with excitement. As he put on his goggles, a thought occurred to him.

"Why do you need two men for this?" he asked.

Magneto raised an eyebrow. Peter wondered if he was doing that at the question, or at how he had suddenly taken out a Walkman and a pair of headphones. He'd made sure to knick one as soon before they were told to stay inside the hideout all the time.

"You hardly thought that I would send you on your first mission alone, did you?" he asked.

Peter laughed and then peered out the window, fixing his headphones over his ears. A man was walking up to the door. Peter kept his eyes trained on him, watched his ever movement. His eyes followed the path of the card, imagined the beep, and watched as the man opened the door.

He switched on the music and jumped out of the car. It was Pink Floyd, which was actually pretty good for what he was about to do. He grinned as he ran towards the door. He entered before the man did and hurried up the stairs.

Once inside he stayed fast enough to be invisible, but not quite fast enough to create a small hurricane. When he encountered people he avoided them as much as possible. At that rate they only felt a breeze go past them, if they felt anything at all.

It wasn't difficult to find the office Magneto had pointed out. Peter quickly booted up the computer and put the disk inside. He waited as the download began, humming along quietly with the song. The download seemed to be taking forever, or maybe that was just how excited he was. Who knew?

When it completed Peter took the floppy disk out and turned off the computer. He put it in his pocket and hurried down the halls. He knew better than to try to go out the front door, so he jumped out an open window and ran along the side of the building. Peter had enough traction to make it to the bottom before gravity kicked in.

Peter was back inside the car before the second song on his Walkman ended. He shut the door and tapped Magneto cheerfully on the shoulder. When Magneto turned he handed him the floppy disk.

"All done," he said.

Magneto smiled at him, turning the keys in the ignition with a wave of his hand.

"Good job," he said.

Peter grinned again and took off his headphones. He was winding up the cord when Magneto spoke again.

"And Peter?"

"Mmmhm?" Peter asked.

"Congratulations," Magneto said, "You're officially one of us now."

Peter's grin began to hurt his face, but he didn't care. He was prouder then than he had ever been before in his life.


	8. Chapter 8

Wanda had never seen Peter so happy. There was a kind of life to his eyes now, an extra spring in his step. She wasn't quite sure about that last one, considering that he was always bouncy, but still. Her brother was happy.

Her own feelings were a little more complex. She liked the Brotherhood, even if Toad stared too much and Astra was a witch. She liked what they were doing, and she liked not being alone. Every single person on the team understood where she had been, what she had gone through to bring her to them. They knew what it was like to be alone, hunted, afraid. Peter had been right to want to join.

There was, however, a small part of her that felt sorry for Lorna. Most of the times she was left to wander the hideout by herself. She'd made herself quietly useful in the way that Lorna always did: sweeping the floors, ordering the books, other chores like that.

She knew that her sister was getting some training, but not like them. Most members were needed around the clock, and now that Wanda and Peter were full members they were out and about too. As much as Wanda hated leaving her sister alone, she knew that it was just something that had to happen.

It wasn't as though Lorna was being ignored. Her sister was getting some basic self-defense lessons, not from Astra thank God, but Ink. Of the Brotherhood members, he was the one who seemed second most interested in Lorna.

The first most was, somehow, Magneto. For all of his protests at the beginning, he had begun to oversee Lorna's training with her mutation personally. That was where Wanda's comfort level with the Brotherhood ran into another hitch. Magneto and Lorna shared the same power, and it had made Magneto interested to see what Lorna could do. Wanda would want to do the same thing if she ran into someone with her ability.

What made her uncomfortable was when the two of them would practice. Magneto would crouch down so he was around Lorna's height, and then show her a technique. Again, nothing that Wanda wouldn't have done herself if she was trying to teach someone younger than her.

It was the eerie similarity between the two of them that got to her. The intense concentration in their eyes, the way that their lips would pull back, just showing a glimpse of their teeth. When Wanda looked at the two of them she was getting a front row seat to the kind of person Lorna could grow up to be. And that left her feeling strange.

Which led to other questions. Why should she feel like that? Wanda was enjoying being a part of the Brotherhood. The thrill of the mission was in her blood, the strong belief that she was laying down paving stones to the path for freedom. She was working with her brother, her fellow mutants.

And, above it all, was Magneto. He was the indomitable one. He was the one who was in control, knew what he was doing. He was their leader, the first mutant to strike out for equality. He was so commanding that even Astra respected him, had agreed to follow his orders. Why should she feel strange about the possibility of her sister growing up to be like him? Shouldn't she feel proud? Was she jealous? Was that why she was reacting this way?

Wanda sighed and sat down on the couch. Her hair, once cropped short, was starting to grow back in. She missed the feeling of her auburn locks on her shoulders, and she hoped it wouldn't take too much longer before it was back to normal.

She cracked her neck, getting ready to relax and unwind for the night. It had been a long day between thinking about her sister and shifting a wall out of the way for the Brotherhood. Wanda was exhausted now, but she was the reason that the mission had been successful. Now it was time to rest up in case they needed her tomorrow.

The door to the living room opened and Toad came in. Wanda sighed when he smiled. From day one she'd known exactly why he swallowed funny when he saw her or ducked his head. She wondered if there was a respectful way to tell a teammate that you were, in no way, interested in them.

He sat down just as a gust of air blew what little hair she still had left out of the way. Wanda sighed again, but this time in relief. Her brother sat down next to her, propping his feet up on the coffee table. He pulled back his goggles, already whistling.

"So," he said, stopping for a moment, "Someone moved a wall out of the way today."

"Mmmhm," Wanda said.

"Come on, I want details!" Peter said, snapping his fingers, "Did it explode or disappear?"

She shrugged.

"There was a lot of red light, and then it went away," Toad said.

Peter turned and grinned, his attention momentarily directed elsewhere.

"Toad, my man," Peter said, "Red light huh? That explains a lot. Looks like my sister's got a calling card."

"Shut up or I'll make you disappear," said Wanda.

"Nah," Peter replied, "If you were gonna do that, you'd have done it years ago."

He glanced back at at Toad.

"She's too modest sometimes," he said, "But ya know what?"

"What?" asked Toad.

"I bet you two would be cute together."

Wanda made a small choking noise in the back of her throat at the same time Toad started spluttering. She went to hit Peter, but he'd moved to the other side of the couch too fast. He was laughing, which made Wanda want to hit him all the more.

Thankfully, the door opened and Ink walked in with Lorna. Their sister took one look at the three of them and rolled her eyes. Ink glanced over at Toad, and Wanda had a feeling that he would be asking him about it later.

Lorna walked over and sat on the couch. Her sister was almost fourteen, and she had yet to hit her growth spurt. Wanda wondered if she had some sort of condition, but it wasn't like they would be able to talk to a specialist about it. Maybe she was just short.

"I'm glad you're back," Lorna said, "I heard on the news there were a lot of police there."

"Just a couple dozen," said Wanda.

"Nothing the Scarlet Witch can't handle," Peter called.

Wanda turned and clenched her hand into a fist. Red light surrounded it.

"What did you just call me?" she demanded.

"Yeesh, chill," Peter said, "I'm just repeating what I saw on the news."

"What?" Wanda said, the light around her fist disappearing.

"The news called you the Scarlet Witch," Lorna said, "They've um, actually called you that quite a bit over the past few weeks."

Wanda let her hand fall down and leaned back on the couch. Briefly she wondered what her mother would think if she saw that on TV.

"It's not bad," Ink said, "They called me the Illustrated Man for the first couple of weeks. I managed to make Ink a thing before they called me the other one too much. God, the names they come up with are such a mouthful."

He sat down in a spare arm chair.

"You might wanna think about what you want to be called," he said, "I've often wondered why you've kept your slave names."

"Slave names?" Wanda asked.

"It's what Astra calls them," Toad explained.

She groaned. Now they were listening to Astra?

"You know, I'm Toad, he's Ink, we've got Astra-" Toad explained

"Good, 'cause here I was thinking that Astra just had really crappy parents who hated her with that name," said Peter, sitting down next to Wanda.

"I wouldn't count it out," said Ink.

Peter coughed.

"But we're looking into mutant names again?" he said, "I'm kinda good with Peter."

"It's more than just a mutant name," Ink said, "It's leaving behind that part of your identity that you didn't like. I mean, you ran away from home. You couldn't have been that happy as Peter."

Wanda wanted to ask just what Ink knew about it, but Peter suddenly looked thoughtful.

"Never thought of it like that," he said.

"You should start," Ink said, "We're all in this together here, and you three are the only ones who decided to keep your old names."

Peter gave him a nasty look.

"You trying to say something?" he asked.

"No," Ink said, "It's not like it's a bad thing or anything. It's just weird. This is all about being something different than you used to be, at least on the field."

"Or about being who you always were," Peter said.

"You've been talking to Magneto," Ink said.

"Haven't we all?"

Next to Wanda Lorna began to chew her lip.

"Okay," Peter announced, "I'm gonna be...Quicksilver."

Wanda rolled her eyes.

"Can you get any more unoriginal?" she asked, "You're quick, and your hair is silver. Really Peter, really?"

"You come up with a better one," he challenged.

She made a face, ready to come up with a real zinger, but her mind drew a blank. It couldn't be this hard to come up with a new name. However, a name like Mary or Tina weren't names that would work. She needed something that defined her, and nothing was coming to mind.

"I think the news actually did a good job," Wanda said at last.

"You can't think of anything!" Peter crowed.

"I can," lied Wanda, "But why change a name if the world is already looking at it with fear? Oh, wait, you wouldn't know. You haven't been on the news."

"I have been!" Peter snapped, "I'm just too fast for them to see me!"

"Guys, guys," Ink laughed, "It's not that big of a deal. Trust me when I say that we're all gonna be on the news sooner or later."

He looked over at Lorna, who Wanda suddenly realized was still chewing her lip.

"What are you gonna call yourself?" he asked.

Lorna shrugged.

"Come on, we need to think of something," Toad said.

"How about Magnetrix?" Ink suggested.

There was that feeling again.

"You know, because you control metal," Ink said.

Lorna remained silent, but stopped chewing on her lip.

"That's only three letters away from Magneto's name," Toad said, "Think he'd be cool with that?"

"Of course," said Ink, "He likes her. He'd probably be proud she's taking in such an interest. Everyone knows she's special for him."

"Like a kid with a pet," Peter said.

"Peter!" Wanda snapped.

He shrugged casually, but Wanda thought she saw a tightness in his jaw that hadn't been there before. She looked at Lorna, trying to gauge how upset she was about Peter's comment. When she did, Wanda could have sworn she saw a little bit of blood on Lorna's lip.

"Can I just be Lorna for now?" she said.

Everyone looked at her. Lorna gave a tentative smile.

"Um, Magneto, he said my powers might not be fully developed yet, because I'm so young," she said, "So, um, I don't really want to pick a name that I might have to change later."

Ink smiled, but Toad looked confused.

"How can your powers change?" he said.

"I don't know," Lorna said, "I just wanna be sure. I'll be sure around seventeen I think?"

"Well, just so you know, when the time comes you can always use Magnetrix," Ink said.

Peter snorted and Wanda broke out into a laugh. Yes, this was where she belonged.


	9. Chapter 9

Peter raced back into the car, his arms filled with floppy disks. He threw them up into the air, opening the door and collecting them before they had a chance to fall to the ground. a moment later he was comfortably seated in the passenger's seat.

"The alarms?" Magneto asked, starting up the car.

"Won't go off for another ten minutes," Peter reassured him.

Magneto smiled approvingly as they pulled out. Peter quickly organized the floppy disks and put them back into a small carrier that Magneto had brought. He was getting used to doing these sorts of missions, timing himself so that he could be faster each time he did it.

He was starting to miss getting challenged, but every time he reminded himself that he was doing a job that no other member of the Brotherhood could do. He was the one that they needed for this mission.

It just sort of irritated him that they used Wanda for the bigger missions. His powers were more predictable, and he was much better at combat. A week ago Wanda had accidentally set off the alarms instead of disarming them. They'd still been able to complete the mission, but he'd teased her mercilessly about it afterwards.

"I heard that you took a new name," Magneto said.

Grinning, Peter pushed back his goggles.

"Yeah, Wanda did too," he said.

"If she took a new name, then I hardly think it's appropriate for you to call her by her old name anymore," Magneto said.

Peter shifted in his seat. He'd never imagined calling Wanda anything but Wanda. Sure, she'd accepted The Scarlet Witch as her new identity, but she'd always been Wanda to him. Ever since she'd been born, it had been Peter and Wanda.

He wasn't sure if he liked the idea of it having to be Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch from here on out.

"Never mind," said Magneto dismissively, "You'll get used to it soon enough."

Peter shrugged his shoulders, deciding that it was better than telling him what he was really thinking.

"But, your name," Magneto said.

"Right," Peter said.

He cleared his throat.

"It's Quicksilver," he said.

Magneto cocked his head to the side. Peter suddenly felt nervous. Wanda had thought that it was stupid. Maybe Magneto would too. Immediately afterwards he got annoyed. Who cared if Magneto liked it or not? Peter was the one who was going to be called by it for the rest of his life.

"It suits you," Magneto said.

Peter grinned.

"Well duh," he said, "Who I am. Something like that."

He thought back to what Toad had said.

"Does Astra really call our old names our slave names?" he asked.

"She can be a little dramatic at times," Magneto said, "But I'm sure you can understand the sentiment."

Peter snorted. He wondered sometimes if Astra just did stuff like that to get attention. Maybe he would say that to her next time she was being difficult. He decided against it. She probably wouldn't even care if he did. After all, Peter knew that it wasn't his attention that she was trying to get.

Kinda sad really.

"There's something else I would like to talk to you about," Magneto said.

He glanced up, putting the carrier with floppy disks away and taking out a stick of gum.

"What about?" he asked.

"Your sister," said Magneto.

"Wa-The Scarlet Witch?"

"No. Lorna."

Peter resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They had just finished a mission breaking into a secure facility to steal highly classified documents. Couldn't they do something a little more important than talk about his baby sister?

"What about her?" he asked.

"It has to do with her training," Magneto said, "I'm sure that you've realized that your sister is very gifted for her age."

Again, he wanted to roll his eyes. What he really wanted to do was change the subject, but he didn't think that he was high enough on the totem pole to do that yet. The best he could do was make the conversation snappy.

He popped the stick of gum into his mouth. He'd turned eighteen a few months ago, but if he ever got too old for gum then he'd just give up and die.

"She's pretty cool," said Peter.

"I'm not referring to her attitude," Magneto said, "I'm referring to her potential."

He chomped down on his gum. So much for making it snappy: he could tell this conversation was going to take a while. He had no clue why Magneto would want to talk about Lorna at length though. Lorna had little to do with their day-to-day lives. Sure, she was going to be a great member of the Brotherhood one day. She was gifted, clever, and knew how to think fast.

Right now though, right now she had just turned thirteen. She wasn't combat ready and did all of the odd jobs around the place. Lorna was the best baby sister anyone could ask for, but he wasn't sure just why Magneto was showing such an interest in her.

"She hasn't taken a new name yet, which puzzles me since both of you have," Magneto said.

"She said she wanted to see what happened with her powers before she started calling herself something," Peter said, "Powers solidify at like seventeen right?"

"Thereabouts. But I was training her the other day and she looked troubled," Magneto said, "I was simply wondering if anything was amiss."

Peter raised his eyebrows.

"With Lorna?" he asked, "Nah, she's always good."

Magneto let out a low chuckle.

"Peter, you're still very young," he said, "You have yet to learn that no one is 'always good.' Something is troubling your sister."

A burning flush crept up the back of his neck.

"Nothing's up with Lorna," Peter said snappishly, "She doesn't have it in her to be upset. Not since dad died anyway."

Magneto's eyebrows raised. Peter immediately felt embarrassed. He hadn't meant to tell him quite that much.

"You should probably explain that a little more," said Magneto.

"Nah," Peter said.

He turned his head away from Magneto and looked out the windshield. The silence stretched on and Peter began chewing his gum a little faster. Magneto sighed.

"Quicksilver, I don't want to force you to share, and I certainly don't want to pry into unnecessary details," he said.

"Good. So that means we're not going to talk about this, right?" asked Peter.

Magneto shook his head.

"We are going to talk about that because, at least in part, you brought it up," Magneto said.

"It was an accident!" Peter argued.

"Another thing you'll learn is that there are seldom 'accidents' with these sorts of things," said Magneto.

"Why does it matter?" asked Peter, "You said you didn't want to pry."

"I said I didn't want to pry into unnecessary details," Magneto said, "This, however, is a necessary detail."

"Not following," Peter snapped.

Magneto sighed.

"Our powers are linked to our emotions," he said, "If there is some past trauma that can affect the members of my team, then it is essential that I know about it."

Peter continued chewing his gum for a moment. He tapped his fingers against the armrest for a moment more, the silence becoming stony. He had the feeling that Magneto wasn't going to give up on this anytime soon.

Once again, the best he could do was try to make it snappy.

"The elementary school lets out before the high school in our town, and Lorna'd just gotten a really good grade, so dad took her out for ice cream," he said, "Something was up with the road, and the car went into the side of the hill. Lorna was fine, but dad bled out from his injuries before the paramedics could get there."

"So she had to watch when that happened," Magneto said.

"Yeah."

Silence descended on the car. Magneto was looking dead ahead, his jaw set.

"I'm sorry," Magneto said after a while.

Peter chewed on his gum a little more. He'd just gotten condolences. That meant that it was almost over. He could just give a small explanation and then be done with it.

"What I meant earlier is that I think it kinda shocked the sad outta her. She was never real weepy, but she pretty much stopped afterwards," he said, "Only other time I saw her cry after that was when those guys came to the house to take me away."

"And you?" said Magneto.

"And me what?"

"Your father."

The question surprised him. He frowned, trying to find words. Despite his best efforts, the conversation was once again shaping up to be a long one, and his feelings towards his father were complicated. It would have been easier to talk about his dislike for his absent and frightened mother.

"Dunno," he said.

"Your father died," Magneto said, "I would imagine that you have feelings on the subject."

He wrinkled his nose. Feelings. Peter was never good talking about those, but Magneto kept giving him side looks.

"Hard to say," Peter said, "I mean, he was always working, so I didn't really know him."

"He picked up your sister for ice cream," said Magneto, turning a corner, "That suggests a man who tried to make time for his kids."

"For Lorna, yeah," said Peter, "She was his favorite. I kinda felt like he didn't know what to do with me and Wanda, so I can't really say that I missed him that much when he was gone. Felt sad, yeah, but not like all torn up. He just...he was there, but he wasn't there. Ya know?"

They turned another corner. Peter had the feeling that they were getting further and further away from the hideout, but once more he didn't know if he was allowed to interrupt or change the subject. Besides, Magneto wasn't acting all therapist, meaning that Peter didn't feel like someone was getting on his back about stuff.

"It must have been difficult, your younger sister getting so much attention."

Peter laughed so hard he nearly choked on his gum. Magneto pulled the car over and stared at him as he hacked and coughed. When he had recovered, Peter shook his head, still laughing despite the pain in his chest.

"First off, less attention meant I got to do what I wanted the way I wanted," Peter said, "Second off, Lorna was kinda everyone's favorite in the family. We all liked her lots, so it's not like I was gonna get all jealous older brother. You can't help but like Lorna."

He laughed again. Magneto smiled as he pulled the car back into the street.

"I mean, we're all good at different stuff," Peter said, "Lorna's great at being all supportive and cute and loving. Perfect baby sister."

"She's thirteen now," Magneto said.

"Fine, kid sister," Peter said, "Always has been, and I wouldn't change that. Scarlet Witch, she's good at being all voodoo and smoothing stuff over."

"And you?" Magneto said.

"Obviously I'm good at everything else," said Peter.

This time Magneto did laugh and Peter grinned. He folded his arms across his chest.

"Especially stealing stuff," he said.

"Yes, I had noticed that," Magneto said.

They turned another corner. Peter was starting to get dizzy. He gestured back to the floppy disks.

"So, what are all these for anyway?" Peter asked.

"Various things," he said, "Most of it is information from Trask Industries."

Peter made a face.

"And we're not burning those things right now…why?" he asked.

Magneto laughed.

"While I understand the sentiment, destroying them now would be incredibly short-sighted," said Magneto, "I want the names of the people who helped Trask create his weapons."

"Why's that?" Peter said.

"So we can stop them from trying it in the future," said Magneto, "Which brings me to the next item on today's agenda."

Peter frowned and began chewing the stick of gum a little harder. It was really starting to lose its flavor, and he popped in a second stick as a reinforcement.

"Meaning?" he asked.

"One of them lives close by," said Magneto, "I thought it was time that we had a little chat."

"About what?" Peter said.

Magneto's face became a little grimmer.

"Their work."


	10. Chapter 10

Peter was impressed with the the way that the door came off its hinges. He'd vibrated his way through doors before, and they had always come apart with a ton of splinters and a lot of effort. Magneto just flexed his fingers and it was over. Neat, nice.

To the scientist's credit, he knew what was coming, and he did try to run. Peter didn't blame him: if he'd persecuted a group of highly powerful people and two showed up at his door, he'd do the same.

The only difference was that Peter was a lot faster than the guy. He caught him before he managed to get into the next room. Peter yanked him back and slammed him into the nearest chair in the amount of time it took him to chomp down once on his gum.

"Hey, hey," Peter grinned, pulling the man's coat off and using it to tie his hands behind his back, "Is that any way to greet people?"

The man looked up at him in abject terror. The look suddenly made him uncomfortable, but before he could examine that feeling Magneto began speaking.

"Now then," said Magneto, "Dr. Killbrew, isn't it?"

The man directed his attention to Magneto and swallowed. Magneto smiled and closed the door behind him. Peter was relieved that he'd ignored the feeling and hadn't said much. They had already talked about how Magneto was going to be the one talking.

"Yes, I thought so," he said, "You've been rather busy, haven't you?"

Killbrew licked his lips nervously. Magneto pulled a folder out of his jacket that Peter hadn't known he had. His expression casual Magneto began flipping through printouts of what looked like X-rays. He had no clue.

Peter leaned up against the desk next to him. He could see Killbrew's eyes flick towards him when he did that, like he was trying to keep both of them within his range of sight. Not that that would do him much good.

"Tell me," Magneto said, "What do you know about the Weapon X program?"

Killbrew didn't say anything: just licked his lips again.

"Quicksilver," said Magneto, "Would you mind?"

He looked up at him and Peter had absolutely no idea what it was that Magneto wanted him to do. He saw Magneto raise his eyebrows impatiently, making a small gesture with his hand. Then it hit him: he was supposed to hit the guy.

Peter felt his mouth go dry. So this was the Brotherhood's version of a chat? He'd seen cop shows, and they didn't do stuff like this. Granted, a lot of those shows were just _Get Smart _reruns, but the concept remained the same.

_You're not a cop you moron. You're Brotherhood, and you know this guy is a prick._

Steeling himself Peter grabbed the back of Killbrew's head and slammed it down onto the desk next to him. He did it quickly, putting the right amount of effort into it like he'd been taught. He didn't want him to go unconscious.

When Peter released him there was a trickle of blood going down Killbrew's nose. For some reason he was reminded of the nosebleed Lorna had gotten when Wanda tried to heal her. He watched the blood's path, entranced, before he tore his eyes away.

When he did he saw Magneto give him a look of approval.

"I will ask you again," Magneto said, "What do you know about the Weapon X program?"

"Please," coughed Killbrew, "I just retired-"

"Yes," Magneto agreed, "You did. But there are some people out there who might like to talk to you by the names of-"

He flicked through the papers.

"-David North, Wade Wilson, and Victor Creed to name a few," Magneto read.

Killbrew paled.

"Now, you could either talk to me, or I could call them," said Magneto, "They might have some questions for you, mostly concerning just what it was you did to them when they were on your operating table."

"They were just government property!" Killbrew said.

"Quicksilver."

Peter slammed Killbrew's face into the desk again. It was easier this time, mostly after what he'd said. Government property? No one was government property. He heard his nose crunch and Killbrew let out a cry. Blood began pooling onto the wood.

He turned from the sight and saw Magneto make another gesture. Pushing aside feelings of nausea, Peter ground Killbrew's face into the table. There were some more cries, and Peter got angrier. Why did he have to make so much noise? Why did Peter feel so sick when Magneto was obviously unaffected?

When he released Killbrew he noticed that some of the man's blood had gotten onto his hands and shirt.

"I left two months ago," Killbrew said, his voice choked, "There was some sort of mishap, I think. One of the subjects got away and there was this thing...they had to call in some people and it was getting too intense."

"I see," said Magneto.

He shut the folder.

"I would like you to tell me the names of everyone that you worked with," Magneto said, "And I would like the locations of all of your facilities, as well as any data that you could give me on any current attempts to develop anti-mutant weapons."

He took out a pencil and tossed it to Peter. Peter caught it, frowning.

"My friend will be writing everything down," he said.

Peter sighed and took a seat. He grabbed some paper from Killbrew's desk and saw that the blood smeared on the letterhead. He bit down on his gum so hard that he could feel his teeth grinding up against each other.

"Now, begin," Magneto said.

They sat there for around half an hour, with Peter writing as fast as he could. He got everything down, his hands cramping by the time they were done. He shoved the papers inside his jacket along with the pencil, trying to forget the past hour.

"Before we go, two more things," Magneto said.

He held up four fingers and began ticking them off as he mentioned a name.

"David North, Wade Wilson, Victor Creed, and some unnamed man that you apparently did preliminary research in augmenting with a rare metal," he said, "He's only referred to here as X, but he still counts."

He put his fingers down.

"You have four fillings," he said, "That's one for each. Fitting."

With a jerk of his hand Peter heard Killbrew scream. Peter forced himself to stay steady, forced himself not to try and put a hand on the wall to steady himself. Killbrew spit out four fillings along with a wad of blood and saliva.

"And now, for the last thing," Magneto said.

He crouched down so that he was eye level with Killbrew, a strange smile on his face.

"Quicksilver, that last scream will have attracted some attention," he said, "I'd like you to watch the door, but also pay close attention to what I'm doing."

His throat felt like sandpaper as Peter began looking around the room. Peter watched him pull out a silver coin from his pocket and turn it over in his hands.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked Killbrew.

Killbrew, blood still dribbling from his lips, didn't say anything.

"It's a German coin, specifically from the Nazi-era," he said, "When I was young, it was one of the first things that my ability just wouldn't work on. I keep it for special occasions."

He tilted his head and the coin began to thread its way through his finger.

"I...I didn't have anything to do with the Nazis," Killbrew managed.

"No, you didn't," agreed Magneto.

The coin stopped its trajectory.

"But what you did wasn't so far off," he said.

Magneto smiled.

"This is for Sean Cassidy," he said.

The coin moved with a speed that Peter would have envied if he didn't feel so disconnected. It shot through Killbrew's head and blood splattered onto him. Peter stared, at once entranced and disgusted and so, so lost.

The door burst open and two policemen came in. The world returned to him and Peter jerked his goggles over his eyes. He ran up to them, taking away their guns and pushing them to the floor.

He hit both their heads against the doorframe and took out their handcuffs, cuffing them together and trying desperately to forget what he had just witnessed. Was that what he was going to have to do from now on? Was this what life had become?

Peter got up just as Magneto pocketed the coin. He turned to Peter and made a motion. Peter followed him numbly, for once in his life glad that he was going slow. If he went any faster he knew that he would just fall over.

He got into the car and, for a few moments, they drove in silence.

"Say what you want to say," Magneto said.

His tongue felt stuck to the roof of his mouth, and the gum there felt as though it were lead.

"I will not be angry," Magneto said calmly, "But I have the feeling that you want to say something."

"You murdered him," said Peter.

The words came out of nowhere, and Magneto shook his head.

"Murder is what you do to higher forms of life Quicksilver," he said, "What I did was put down a rabid dog."

"He said he'd quit..." Peter mumbled.

"And I'm supposed to trust him when he says that?" asked Magneto, "Quicksilver, what you just saw was a necessity. I can't allow someone like that to continue on, can't risk that. It's a messy business, but it's necessary to our survival."

He shook his head again.

"No matter what people try to tell you, no new world was ever built by mercy," he said, "The creation of something new, something good, is born from fire and blood. Your nation was built when people rose up violently against their oppressors. That is what we are doing now. This is what we deal in, what we have to do."

Peter looked blankly at him, trying to focus.

"My country?" he asked, his voice thin, "Where are you from?"

"Poland," Magneto said.

Peter blinked a few times, still trying to get his head in order.

"You just...but did it have to be like that?" he said.

Magneto sighed.

"You are young," he said, "There is so much you don't understand."

He stopped the car. Once he'd parked he turned to Peter and raised one of his arms. The sleeve fell away and Peter saw a row of numbers tattooed there. Peter had never been good in history class, but he knew exactly what those meant.

"This is what happens when people realize that you are different," he said, "And it can be the smallest of things."

Peter felt his thoughts clear a little. This was what he had wanted, wasn't it? He'd wanted the ability to protect who and what he was. He'd never thought about what he'd have to do in order for that to happen though.

Now, not only was he being faced with that, but he was being faced with the consequences of failure.

"I need you to understand this," Magneto said.

Looking down, Peter swallowed his gum and tried to think. So much of what Magneto said made sense. What did he think a revolution would include? Just more thievery? No, this was the dirty work, the things that most people were too scared to talk about in history books.

He knew that he had a decision in front of him, a crossroads. He could go back to the headquarters, take his sisters and leave, or he could stay and fight. Peter looked at Magneto, at the man he had once put so much faith in.

Now, before doing so again, he had to know one thing.

"Who's Sean Cassidy?"

Magneto put his arm down.

"A young mutant I knew once," he said, "He and some of his friends...they were an idealistic lot. There was a gunman threatening a group of children. He moved to save them, he was shot three times in the chest. Died almost instantly."

He grimaced.

"Before his friends could collect the body Killbrew's colleagues took it, brought it to his lab, and he dissected it," Magneto said, "I believe there are still...samples somewhere."

His voice lowered.

"It was just before his seventeenth birthday," he said.

Suddenly everything snapped into focus. Peter could feel understanding flow through him, and he sat up a little straighter in his seat. So much made sense now.

"Right," he said.

He pulled his goggles down in front of his eyes.

"Where to next?" he asked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Magneto smile.


	11. Chapter 11

Wanda had been lounging across the couch, lazily flipping through channels when her brother came in. Toad had been nearby, as he always seemed to be, and Lorna had been curled up in an armchair with her book. It was as comfortable as any Friday night with the Brotherhood could be.

She'd looked over her shoulder casually to ask him how it had gone, and then she'd seen that Peter was covered with blood. Her mouth dropped open and her grip on the remote fell from her fingertips. Even from where she was she knew it wasn't his, but that wasn't enough to calm her down.

Before she'd collected her wits she heard Lorna give a strangled cry. Wanda got to her feet, unsure of what she was going to do. Should she comfort her sister, ask her brother what happened, ask Magneto what had happened?

She looked at Peter, saw the grimness in his eyes. From somewhere behind her Toad got to his feet and scurried out of the room. Magneto looked between Wanda and Lorna for a moment before sighing.

"Tonight we have advanced our work," he said, putting his hand on Peter's shoulder, "Your brother did well. There is nothing to be ashamed or frightened of."

Peter put his hands in his pockets.

"Thanks," he said, "But I think I'd like to talk to my sisters in private."

Magneto nodded and removed his hand. His eyes flickered over to Lorna.

"I would recommend you washing up first," he said.

"No point," Peter shrugged, "They've already seen."

Magneto inclined his head and then left. Wanda took a step towards Peter, her hand reaching out.

"I'm okay," he said shortly, "None of this is mine."

"Yeah, I figured," Wanda said, "Whose is it?"

Her voice came out sharper than she'd meant it too, but she didn't know what else to say. Her hand fell by her side as Peter began chewing on his tongue. Or gum. Wanda had never been able to tell which it was.

"Some scientist who experimented on mutants," said Peter, "We couldn't let him go around doing stuff like that anymore."

"Experimenting?" Wanda said.

She felt sick. How many times had she worried that either she or her siblings would end up in a lab? It had been that worry that had led her to defy the authorities on the night of Peter's arrest. Wanda's hand clenched into a fist.

"Did he hurt you?" she asked.

"No," Peter said, "We just wanted some info. Turns out he killed a sixteen-year-old Mags knew a couple of years ago."

Wanda turned away.

"So...he wasn't doing anything?" Lorna asked.

She turned to Lorna, surprised. Wanda felt embarrassed: she had all but forgotten she was in the room.

"Not at the moment," said Peter.

"And you killed him?" Wanda asked.

"Technically it was Mags who did the killing," Peter said, "But yeah, I kinda helped."

Wanda bit the inside of her cheek.

"Peter, that's a little-"

"Don't be so naïve," Peter snapped, "Look at where you are Wanda! Look at what's been happening!"

He spread his hands out. Wanda watched where the fabric crackled from the dried blood.

"No matter what people try to tell you, no new world was ever built by mercy," he said, "If you just think about it, the creation of something new, something good, is born from fire and blood. I mean, look at the American Revolution and all that. This is what we deal in, what we have to do."

Peter thumped his fist on his chest.

"It's what I had to do," he said.

"Who said that?" Lorna said.

Again, her voice startled Wanda.

"Was it Magneto?" asked Lorna, "I don't think it was you."

"Does it matter?" Peter said, "If something's true, it's true."

He looked over at Wanda.

"Wanda, think about it," he said, "They were creating robots to destroy us. Do you remember when we heard about the Sentinels? Do you remember that feeling of hopelessness?"

Wanda couldn't help but nod. She remembered that sinking feeling all too well. Peter looked over at Lorna.

"You remember those men who came to our house?" he asked, "They were probably gonna hand me over to someone like that guy Magneto killed tonight. That's how they treat us: like we're animals. You're real little, but you have to start learning that these people are our enemies at some point or another."

He jerked his head over to Wanda.

"You get it, don't you?" he asked, his voice a few octaves above a plea, "You get why we can't let guys like that hang around the world. They're too dangerous."

Words fought, confused and jumbled, to make themselves known.

"Yes," she said.

It was as close to an answer as she could come up with. The rest were too hazy. She had a feeling that, not only would they be considered uncertain, but that Peter would argue with her. Wanda recognized too many of the emotions he referenced, too much of what he said made sense.

"Then okay," he said.

He looked down at his hands.

"I didn't mean for you guys to see this," he confessed, "I guess I look pretty horrific right now."

"You do," Wanda agreed.

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm gonna go shower up," he said.

"You do that."

Wanda watched him go, breathing in and out deeply.

"Wanda?" Lorna asked timidly.

She looked at her little sister. Lorna's eyes were too big. They seemed to swallow her face whole, like she was trying to see everything at once but nothing at the same time.

"What he said..." Lorna said, "Um...is that what...do you..."

"I'm going to stop you right there," said Wanda.

She took another deep breath.

"Lorna, since discovering that we were mutants, we have been through hell," she said, "And right now we're in a place that's making every single mutant safe from having to experience that. And if the methods are...extreme at times, it's only because they have to be."

Wanda tilted her head down so that she could look her sister in the eyes.

"Understand?" she said.

Lorna bit down on her lip, and Wanda breathed in harshly.

"I asked if you understood," she said, frustration and hysteria on the edge of her mind, "It's all been very well and good for you to be naïve in the past, but we can't afford that anymore."

Her little sister closed her eyes, but nodded.

"Good," Wanda said.

She flopped back down on the couch, trying to forget what she had seen.

"Wanda?"

"What?" she said, rubbing her temples.

"Just, about what Peter said-"

"You said you understood!" Wanda snapped.

Lorna fell silent, and Wanda began rubbing her temples again.

"Lorna, I didn't mean to snap," she said, "But I really don't feel like talking about this. I just need to know if you understand, because I think this is something you need to understand in the Brotherhood."

There was silence. Wanda risked a quick glance at her sister. Lorna was staring at her, her eyes still so big. However, when she saw that Wanda was looking at her, she began nodding. Wanda closed her eyes before picking up the remote to turn the TV on again.

"Good," she said.

True to her word, Lorna didn't bring it up again. Wanda was glad, even if she wasn't sure if Lorna was old enough to fully understand what they were involved in. She had always been so innocent, but it was about time they started telling her more about what the world was really like.

Wanda didn't like to think that she was going to lose that, but they life the had chosen wasn't conducive to innocence. Unlike so many passive others, they had chosen to fight. That meant getting your hands dirty.

Peter was just the first to go through with it, although he hadn't actually taken a life. She never found out exactly what happened in the following days: Peter had felt that he'd said his piece, been understood, and moved on. Her brother wasn't known for dwelling on things for too long.

She, however, did dwell on it. Wanda pulled out her tarot cards and looked at them for a long time. While she'd had to leave her treasured pack back at the house, she had managed to find a deck on the run and keep it with her.

For several days Wanda considered doing a reading. She even shuffled the cards and took deep breaths, but every single day the courage failed her. Finally, one week after she talked to Peter, she did a reading.

The first three cards were the ones that represented her siblings. Wanda was both glad and apprehensive about that. At least, like the reading she had done a lifetime ago in her mother's house, it was all three of them. They would go through whatever happened together.

That hope fell when she pulled the card of The Hanging Man. She had dropped it on top of the other three cards. The Hanging Man meant a crossroads, introspection, a decision. Wanda didn't like what that meant in the context of her life.

In other ways, it made sense. Right now they were at a crossroads. Peter had already decided what he was going to be doing for the rest of his life. Wanda had, of course, been uncertain about following in his footsteps after he'd come home covered in blood. She'd seen Lorna visibly waver.

However, they were all making this decision together. Wanda had, more or less, decided to follow her brother. He was right. Everyone who was standing in their way had hurt mutants just for being mutants. They had treated them like animals for the crime of existing, hated her and her family for daring to share the same air, the same world.

They had already hurt her family. Sure, things hadn't been good, but they'd had a place. If they had just been there to arrest Peter, then they might still be living in that house. They might have gone through the trial, through the inevitable conviction. It would have hurt like hell, but there would have been an element of rightness about it. He'd broken into the Pentagon after all.

Instead they had decided to treat him like he was some sort of exotic animal that they'd picked up somewhere. Wanda set her face and gathered up her cards. She wasn't going to let people like that continue to live on the planet with them. Like Magneto kept saying, nature had moved on from them, the rejected version of humanity.

That same morning she had gone out on a mission. It wasn't too different from what she usually did. There were a few obstacles that she needed to make disappear, but it was nothing that she couldn't handle. She'd done it a million times before.

The only difference was that, this time, she wasn't surrounded by three other people. It was just her and Ink this time. Wanda wasn't sure if it was because Magneto didn't think that they would need the full crew for this, or if it wasn't very important. She never knew with him.

It had been going very well too. Wanda had felt proud that, with only one other member of the Brotherhood as support, she could make things work. It was only when the people with the automatic guns had flooded in that she had started to panic a little.

Ink had begun covering her, as they had been taught, but they kept coming. Wanda had struggled to make a wall vanish as gunfire echoed throughout the hall. Sweat clogged up her eyes and ran down her face as the noises became closer and closer.

When Ink was shot in the arm, she'd whipped around. Wanda had pushed out, the sparks thrumming underneath her skin. She wanted them to leave her alone, her and everyone who had ever caused her or her family harm to stop.

How dare they corner her into this situation? How dare they not accept that the world was changing? How could they be so stuck in their old ways not to know that they couldn't continue this way?

Once the screams had finally stopped she had completed the mission, the necessary information tucked into a pocket of her coat. It was only when she watched the news that night that Wanda realized she had killed three people that day.

And, like the day when Peter had come in covered in blood, she took a deep breath and picked up the remote, this time to change the channel. She wasn't going to dwell on it. Like Peter had said, this was their life now.


	12. Chapter 12

Lorna blinked at the TV in front of her. Her hands were sweating, but they did that a lot these days. Her sight was a little blurry but, again, that happened a lot. She'd tried to get more sleep but, given everything that had happened, she didn't really think that that was an option.

"Now then," Magneto said, "We're going to try something a little different today."

Lorna looked up at him, chewing her lip. She was starting to get sores there and wondered if she should switch to picking at her nails. Maybe she could bite them. Either way, her lip was starting to hurt every day now.

"I want you to turn off the TV," he said.

She sighed and flicked her gaze towards the TV. The dial was made of metal, and she easily put out her hand and caused it to flick to one side, turning off the image. Lorna had been doing that since before she'd come to the Brotherhood.

"Not like that," Magneto said.

He crouched down next to her.

"I want you to stop the electricity," he said.

"I can't do that," she said.

Magneto laughed.

"I know you don't think you can," he said, "But I know that you want to try. It's one of the reasons you wanted to meet me, wasn't it?"

She nodded.

"Yes," she said, "But I can't quite...I mean, it's electricity, not metal. I control the things that have the charge, but I don't really...it's delicate."

"I know," Magneto agreed, "You can sense all of the little screws, the nuts, bolts, the copper wire they use to control the charge. You can feel it all, but it feels different from other metal, less malleable."

She nodded again, feeling relieved. They hadn't gone too much into what Lorna thought of as 'living metal' since her training had begun. It made her feel good that she wasn't the only one that felt this way about electronics.

"But," said Magneto, "you can control these. I remember going into the Sentinels, feeling all those different charges, all those different commands. It was just waiting for someone to tinker with it. In the end, it only took an hour to reprogram them."

Lorna looked at the TV.

"Is there some sort of trick to this?" she asked.

"There's a trick to everything," Magneto said, "You see, you have to feel the way the electricity flows, not as a separate entity, but as something attached to the metal. It's like water flowing off your skin. The water is on you, the water may even be seeping through your pores, but it is not you."

He gestured with his hand. The TV turned on, even though the dial was still switched to the off position.

"You just need to push it from you, dry off as it were," he said, "But you can still collect that water for use later."

She nodded and Magneto sighed.

"You can just say yes or no," he said, "You don't talk very often and nodding is not quite the same thing."

Lorna resisted the urge to bite her lip again.

"I think I get it," she said.

"There we are," Magneto said, "Now, give it a try."

She looked at the TV, and then closed her eyes. It helped sometimes to do it that way, to feel it rather than try to look at it. Lorna concentrated, following the winding paths of curving wire to the source of energy, a dominant heartbeat, waiting to make the resistant metal come alive again.

For a moment she had to look at the unfamiliar setting. Lorna knew that, from an outside point of view, this was where it originated. This is where the reaction started that turned on the TV for her favorite _Get Smart _reruns, for her cartoons. She didn't watch cartoons so much anymore, but the point was still the same. It all began here.

Magneto hadn't mentioned a time limit, sometimes he did, so could work slowly. Lorna began wandering amongst the wires, exploring. It wasn't as though she could see them really, but she could feel the way the world bent around them. Metal seemed so different from so much else in the world, a big fat weight where other things moved.

After a while she found what she thought were the right wires. They required some adjustment, it was more difficult than she would have liked, but she got them into position. Lorna moved another piece, and then there was a flash of light that she felt in her bones.

When she opened her eyes the TV was on and she had a splitting headache. Lorna sat down, rubbing her temples and Magneto smiled.

"First try," he said, "Impressive."

"My head hurts," said Lorna.

"Yes, it does do that the first time," Magneto said, "And every other time after that really. I don't think the charge transfers to us, not really, but if we go back to the water metaphor, we're not always completely dry after we towel off."

She closed her eyes. Even the light hurt.

"I don't think..." she began.

"Lorna?"

Lorna opened her eyes. She felt nervous about what she was about to say, but maybe it was time to say something. After everything that she'd seen through the past few days, it might help her if she made a decision.

"I don't think I want to do this again," she said.

"Sorry?"

She looked up at Magneto, feeling smaller than her diminutive height, younger than thirteen.

"It hurts," she mumbled.

Magneto sat down next to her.

"Lorna, I understand that," he said, his voice gentle, "And I understand your urge to stop. I will respect your wish if that is what you decide. But I want you to make an informed decision."

She clasped her hands together, feeling confused.

"You're going to turn fourteen in a few months, correct?" Magneto asked.

She wanted to nod, but she forced herself to speak instead.

"Yes," she said.

"Right," he said, "Then that will make it three years until you're ready to join your brother and sister in the field. Can you imagine that?"

"Yes."

"Do you want that?"

"Of course," Lorna said.

The words came out quickly. She'd imagined that every single day that she'd been left to do the chores, to do the little things around the house that few people seemed to notice. Lorna had imagined that every time she felt lonely, that one day she wouldn't have to be left behind.

"This ability that you're learning could very well save their lives one day," he said.

Her eyes widened. She looked over at the TV and thought about the day that Peter came back covered in blood, when Wanda had come back silent and stony. Could she help prevent them coming back like that, coming back so troubled?

"Granted, it might not come up," Magneto said, "But are you willing to take that risk?"

She didn't even have to think about it.

"Of course not," said Lorna.

"Alright then," Magneto said.

He took out two aspirin tablets and handed them to her. She dry-swallowed them gratefully.

"Then let's get back to work," he said.

* * *

><p>The punch hit Peter in the gut, sending him to the other side of the room. His hands felt like they were on fire when he pushed himself up, just in time to take a kick to the face.<p>

"Look where you're going," Astra said, "I'd hate to see what happens to you if you ever actually get into a fight."

Peter looked up at Astra, certain that she was the worst person in the world.

"Are you going to do something or are you going to lay there all day?" Astra asked, "Aren't you supposed to be fast?"

He pushed himself up again. He knew he wasn't supposed to challenge her, knew that he wasn't supposed to use his powers. But this time he ran has fast as he could at her, punching her in the shoulder. She skidded backwards, looking surprised and clutching her arm.

He couldn't help the smug grin that came to his face.

"Yeah," he said, "I am fast."

She glared at him, and then she vanished. Peter looked around, feeling uneasy. He'd never actually asked what Astra's mutation was: he'd tried to avoid her as much as possible. While it had certainly stopped a potential conversation between the two, always something to be desired, it meant that he had no idea what had just happened.

He blinked, and suddenly Astra was right in front of him. She punched him straight in the face, sending him back onto the floor and seeing stars.

"And I can appear and disappear at will," Astra said, "Perhaps you should think about that. But you were told not to use your powers in this particular exercise, so you will stop doing that, and I will stop teleporting."

She snorted.

"But I highly doubt that you'll be able to stop getting hit," she said, "Not even Toad did this badly when he first came."

Peter looked up at her, feeling the hate build up in him. He hadn't hated anyone this strongly in a long time. He spit out a wad of blood and saliva before getting to his feet, his back and arms aching like they hadn't in years. She gave him a disdainful look.

"You are cleaning that up," she said.

He pulled back his teeth.

"Make me," he said.

"Say that again?" asked Astra.

Peter was surprised where the words came from. Only a few weeks ago he hadn't dared interrupt Magneto even to tell him that he didn't want to talk about certain things. Now he was directly challenging someone who had been there much longer than he had.

Then again, he really hated Astra, so in a way this made sense.

"I said make me," Peter said.

She laughed then, a high-pitched twittering little sound.

"I can clean the floor with you," she said, "And I think you know that."

"Yeah, you can," said Peter, "But you can't make me do that. You can't force me to humiliate myself for you. Don't ya already get enough of a power trip when you punch your teammates around?"

"Stop talking right the hell now," Astra said.

That was actually pretty funny, so he laughed.

"Better people than you have tried to shut me up," he said, "Including my third grade teacher. And ya know what? She was actually a lot scarier than you."

He rolled his shoulder.

"So I think I'm gonna take a rest right about now before you break off my limbs or something," Peter said, "And I'm gonna ask Magneto if I can start training with Ink. He might not be as tough as you, but at least he doesn't try ta kill his teammates ta make a point."

He grinned nastily.

"And do you know what?" he asked, "I think Magneto's gonna let me."

For a moment Astra just stared at him. Peter wasn't sure if she was going to hit him or continue staring, so he decided to head for the door.

"You think you're special, don't you?"

Peter glanced over his shoulder and regretted it. Now his shoulder and his neck were killing him.

"You may think you're different Quicksilver," Astra said, "But you're just another recruit to him. Your little baby sister's the special one, and he'll get tired of playing mentor for her before she even takes to the field."

The words cut for several reasons. He wished Astra would leave Lorna out of it, especially when she was spouting nonsense. He also wished that she didn't know just where the jugular vein was, regardless of whether or not it was true.

But he knew where her jugular was too.

"Whatever you say," he said, making a dismissive gesture with his hand, "But ya know what? At least I don't look at Magneto the same way Toad looks at my sister, desperate pathetic expression and all."

He sneered when he saw her pale slightly.

"Of course, it's worse with you isn't it?" he said, "At least my sister says something nice to Toad every now and then, shows that she recognizes him as a person. Magneto and you...not so much."

The sneer became a grin when Astra didn't answer. He turned around and began whistling as he walked out of the room.


	13. Chapter 13

"How did I let you talk me into this?" Wanda sighed.

Peter just grinned at her and pointed at Lorna. Even though she was several steps away, it was obvious that she was smiling. The bright lights of the fair were reflected in her eyes, her hands clasped anxiously by her side.

Wanda's expression softened slightly. The image of Lorna enjoying herself was enough to melt the hardest of hearts. Peter figured it was why Magneto had let her stay in the first place. It was hard to say no to that face.

Besides that, they needed to get out of the house. Ever since Peter had delivered what had been, in his mind, a well deserved word punch to Astra, she had been more venomous than usual. Even Toad had noticed her increasingly bad mod, and Peter had wanted to get away for a while.

There were other reasons. Wanda had been a little more morose, and Lorna had been jumpier. She'd also been having headaches, and he was worried that his little sister was overexerting herself. Lorna was, for all of her added height over the past few months, still really frail.

When the fair had come to the outskirts of New York, he had made sure to ask Magneto for permission to go. He'd seen the pure disbelief in his eyes, and Peter had hastily explained that it was to make his sisters feel better, and that they would be cautious.

It had taken awhile, but Magneto had relented. He supposed that what he'd said about it being a morale booster had struck a chord. All they had to do was keep a low profile. It was why Wanda's face was caked in make-up and why Peter was wearing drab clothes, his hair tucked beneath a wig. He'd even added glasses to the effect, no matter how dorky they made him look.

There had been very little that they had had to do to Lorna. She had been out of the public eye for almost two years now. Her brown hair was finally starting to grow in and get long. Wanda had only put slight touches of make up to her face, adding freckles, just to make sure.

He saw her walk up to one of the games and exchange a few coins with the man behind the counter. Peter saw that it was a metal ring toss game. He smiled to himself, sure that his sister was going to walk away with the biggest prize on offer.

"This is weird," Wanda said.

He glanced over at her.

"What is?" he asked.

"Being out in public like this," she murmured, "Just...walking around with people. Like it's no big deal. Like we belong again."

She put her hands in her pockets.

"Know what I mean?" she asked.

He crossed his arms.

"Yes to the first two, no to the last," Peter said, "We've never belonged. Not even when we were little."

"I know," said Wanda, her voice quiet, "Just...back when we thought we did."

He shrugged before clapping her on the shoulder.

"None of that tonight," he said, "Let's just think about how much fun we're having at the fair, okay?"

Wanda nodded, her face still a little glum. Peter wanted to tell her to chill out again, but at that moment he heard a bell ringing from one of the booths. A second later Lorna walked up to them carrying a large stuffed bear.

He scanned over the bear with a critical eye. It was big, but it wasn't the top prize. He frowned and looked at where she had been tossing rings. Lorna had missed two shots.

"Had fun?" he asked.

"Yes," Lorna said.

She put the bear over her shoulder and Peter gestured at the even bigger ones hanging from the top of the stand.

"You didn't make all the rings?" he asked.

"Um, no. I know I could've made those last rings, but you said not to show off too much," she said, "Figured I'd miss a few shots and stay with the bear."

For some reason this annoyed him. True, Magneto had told them to keep a low profile, but if anyone should have forgotten that, it would have been Lorna. She was fourteen, he was eighteen. How had he forgotten it after fighting so hard for all of this?

Lorna was still looking at him though, and he realized she was waiting for him to speak.

"Good thinkin sis," Peter said.

He ruffled her hair and she swatted his hand away, smiling.

"I'm a little old for that," said Lorna.

"You're never too old for that," he said.

"She will get too old for that though," Wanda said, "She's gonna be taller than you some day."

"As if!" Peter said.

He rubbed his hands together.

"Now, come on," he said, "Let's go for something that'll spin us or turn us upside down or something."

"I don't like going upside down," Wanda said, "Makes me feel sick to my stomach."

"Aww, you're no fun!" said Peter.

Wanda put her hands on her hips.

"The last time I went on an upside down ride with you we went on it four times," she said, "I was literally sick everywhere."

"That was really funny," Peter said.

He gestured to Lorna.

"You weren't there because you were with mom at the merry-go-round," he said, "But there was this thing that swung upside down and-"

"I don't think you need to tell her all the details," Wanda interrupted, "Just think a bit more about what we're going to do now that we're here."

Still grinning, Peter winked at Lorna.

"She's just grumpy because a certain someone knows when her birthday is and wants to get her something," Peter said.

Toad had made it no secret that he wanted to do something special for Wanda once he realized when her birthday was. When Wanda found out she had complained to high heavens.

He'd almost considered inviting Toad to their outing that night, just to get under her skin.

"He knows because you told him!" snapped Wanda.

Well, yeah. So what if he had? It had been funny as hell.

"Poor guy needed some encouragement," Peter said, "Besides, he kept asking."

He inclined his head to Lorna.

"And you know me," he said, "Ask me enough times and I'll say yes to anything. Including eating dirt. Or bugs. Or that time when I managed to drink a gallon of milk through my nose."

Lorna looked down, a small smile on her face. Yeah, she remembered that. He was glad, because the only reason he'd done it was to make her smile after their dad had died. It had just come to him when they were sitting at the table one day, getting ready for breakfast.

Peter had been reaching for his glass too when their mother had caught him and stopped him. She was always ruining his fun.

"Still, no upside down rides," said Wanda.

Peter scanned the fair. There wasn't much else to do besides that, nothing that looked interesting anyway. His eyes eventually found the Ferris wheel. It wasn't a bad choice, and he snapped his fingers.

"Ferris wheel," he said, "Five minutes. Let's go."

"Oh um, no thanks," said Lorna, "I um, no."

Peter made a face and Wanda glared daggers at him. Was he forgetting something?

"Why not?" he asked.

Lorna gave him a shy smile, but Wanda looked like she was getting ready to hit him.

"It's a little high," she said.

Right. Lorna was afraid of heights. How had he forgotten that? Sure, it hadn't come up in the past few years. But she hadn't even wanted to climb the roof with him as a child, and that had been his absolute favorite activity when he had just gotten his powers. That and robbing twinkie vans.

"It'll be fine," he said, "I promise."

Lorna looked uncertainly at the Ferris wheel. He scratched the back of his neck.

"You know that we would never let anything happen to you, right?" he said, "I mean, we'd never let you get hurt."

His little sister nodded and Peter put his hand on her shoulder.

"There you go then," he said, "It's gonna be totally fine. You just need to trust us."

Peter leaned over her shoulder and crossed his eyes. Lorna laughed that great laugh she had, and even Wanda gave a chuckle. It made Peter wonder when the last time that he had heard it was. Had it been two years ago? Longer?

It couldn't have been two years ago. That had been when they had entered the Brotherhood, and that had been a long time ago.

"I trust you," Lorna said.

"Then let's get going," he said, "I don't wanna be here all night. That'd probably piss off everyone at home."

Wanda rolled her eyes, but they made it over to the Ferris wheel. He turned in their tickets and took a seat as quickly as he could without attracting attention. It felt weird to force himself to slow down nowadays. All he wanted to do was keep going faster.

He supposed that it had to do with what he was used to. In the Brotherhood, he wasn't used to having to hide who he was and what he could do. The outside world felt a bit like a straitjacket, constraining him and stopping him from doing what he loved.

Although he was enjoying himself at the fair, he knew that he wouldn't be fully comfortable until they got back to the hideout.

"Move over, you're hogging the car," Wanda said.

"Only because you're fat," said Peter, shuffling down.

Wanda sat down next to him and used her hip to shove him into the side of the car. Peter clipped his knee and he winced.

"Ow," he said.

"Next time I'm going to just punch you," said Wanda, "So shut up."

Peter sighed as Lorna sat down next to Wanda. She stifled a giggle from behind her bear.

"You can be such a drama queen," he said.

"I suppose," Wanda said, "But at least I'm not an idiot."

"How am I an idiot for telling the truth?" asked Peter.

He ducked, expecting a punch. Instead he felt her shove him into the side of the car again.

"Hey, hey, quit it!" he said, "You said you were going to punch me-"

A fist connected with his jaw lightly. His jaw dropped and Wanda gave a casual shrug.

"I never said when," she said.

"You should've known better than to talk about weight," Lorna said, "I don't think girls like it when you do that."

The Ferris wheel started moving slowly upwards. Despite his annoyance at how it wasn't moving faster, Peter felt the need for Lorna to clarify her sentence.

"You think?" asked Peter, "Aren't you a girl?"

"Well, it doesn't bother me," she said, "I like how I look. But Wanda gets angry when people do it, and one time Ink said something kind of like that to Astra, and she clocked him one."

Peter made a face. He knew just how much Astra's punches hurt.

"Are you saying I don't like how I look?" asked Wanda.

"I don't know," Lorna said, "I don't see why you wouldn't. You're prettier than me, and I like how I look, so it's all good."

Wanda chortled and put a hand over Lorna's shoulders. The Ferris wheel continued lurching upwards until it reached the top. It stopped there for a few seconds, allowing them to get a good view of the lights below.

Peter looked over at Lorna. She was holding her breath, and he reached across and put a hand on her hand.

"Hey, Lorna," he said.

Her green eyes met his.

"You good?" he asked.

Lorna relaxed slightly, her smile becoming a little more genuine.

"Of course," she said, "You're both here with me, aren't you?"

And for the first time in a while, Peter didn't feel like he didn't belong at the fair. He had to belong: his sisters were there.


	14. Chapter 14

Wanda felt exhausted. Her knuckles were on fire, and sweat was dripping into her eyes. One of the men she'd kicked had nicked her with a knife, so walking was difficult. He hadn't gotten anything major, but it was still uncomfortable.

She had tied her hair back into a ponytail before going out on the mission, but she had lost the hair tie at some point. Her sweaty auburn locks were getting in the way with every moment. It had been a bad day, and she was waiting for it to get worse.

Fighting the urge to collapse on the floor, she rounded a corner. The target room was right in front of her, guarded by two very nervous security guards. She didn't have the physical strength to take them on, nor the concentration.

So she raised her hand and the security guards found themselves without gravity. Wanda flicked her fingers a bit and they found themselves without air. After a moment she let them slump to the ground. She blinked at them: had she knocked them unconscious or killed them? She couldn't be sure.

Her energy reserves were near gone, and she staggered past them into the next room. All of the cabinets were filled with alphabetized boxes from one end of the room to another. She looked around, wondering where she was supposed to go next, what she was supposed to do.

Magneto had been a little vague on what they wanted to do with the room. Technically Ink was supposed to be in charge of getting rid of everything, but he'd gotten caught up in a different corridor. She had heard faint gagging noises before they got separated.

Wanda began pondering the possibilities in front of her as a breeze whipped around her.

"Heya Scarlet," Peter said, "Done sightseeing?"

She sighed.

"Quicksilver, could you give it a rest?" she asked.

Her brother's new name felt clunky and wrong on her tongue. Did they really have to use these names for the rest of their lives? They'd been using them for over a year now and she still hadn't adjusted. It was irritating.

"Nah," he said, "But Ink's a little tied up: you should get to demolishing."

"Demolishing?" said Wanda.

Peter threw his hands into the air.

"Yeah," he said, "Demolishing. The art of destruction. To take away. To destroy-"

"I get it," Wanda snapped, "Was that the mission?"

"Uh, yeah," Peter said.

Wanda wondered just what Peter had done to get told the mission objective. Her aching leg informed her that it didn't matter.

"Okay," she said, "Just uh..."

She looked around the room. It seemed bigger now. Sweat was still pouring down her neck, and she could feel a distinct weakness in her muscles. There had been too many people she had faced coming in, too many people that she was reluctant to confront directly. Although she had reconciled herself with killing people, it didn't mean she had to do it every time she went out on a mission. It was why she was still thinking about those security guards.

In short, Wanda had exerted herself getting to the room. Now all she wanted to do was take a nap. Napping wasn't exactly an option though: not in enemy territory. She put her hand on one of the cabinets.

"Give me a moment," she said.

Peter frowned, looking concerned. Wanda couldn't blame him. She felt concerned herself.

"I've got your back," he said, "Just...don't push yourself, okay?"

"Okay," Wanda said.

She took several deep breaths. Peter began whizzing around her, no doubt checking the room for any guards. She heard a few grunts and figured that he had found them. A small voice asked if he'd killed them. Wanda pushed it away. She was getting sick of that little voice and wished that it would go away and leave her alone. There was too much going on right now.

"Good?"

He was back already? She shouldn't have expected any less. Wanda supposed that she should tell her brother that he should do it without her, but then Magneto might ask why she hadn't done it. She didn't want to tell him that she'd been too tired. It sounded so weak.

So, with one last breath Wanda opened her eyes. Peter was standing in front of her, still concerned. She nodded and pressed both of her palms against the nearest cabinet. Wanda could feel the red warmth spread through her, see the sparks dance in the air.

Flashes of paper work and photos appeared her mind and then disappeared. It was a trove of information, information that could hurt them all. A second later the documents turned to ashes. Wanda took her hands off the cabinet and then stumbled backwards.

She would have fallen, but Peter caught her.

"Scarlet?" he asked.

"I'm okay," muttered Wanda.

"Now that's a damn lie if I ever heard one," he said, "Is that your blood on your leg?"

Was he only now noticing that?

"It's not much," she said.

"Riiiiight," Peter said, "Come on: let's get you back to the van. I'll have the others there in a moment."

He grabbed her shoulders with one arm and put his hand behind her head with the other. There was a blast of cool air and she found herself sitting in the backseat of the car. It felt amazing to be able to rest her leg for a bit.

She leaned her head back, wondering if she had time to fall asleep. There were a few more wooshes and Wanda bit the inside of her cheek. She had to stay awake until they got to the hideout. Astra had been a real bitch lately, and Wanda wasn't going to give her any ammunition by falling asleep in the car.

Peter took to the wheel and hit the gas. Her head jerked forward as they turned a corner.

"Watch it!" Astra snapped.

"You know, when your lips move, all I hear is yadda yadda yadda," Peter said.

He began swaying his head a little. Astra's lips pursed into a thin line. Ink was starting to move forward in his seat.

"Is that like, another language?" he said, "I was thinking it was Astraese, this weird dialect that nobody likes or cares about-"

Astra had started to undo her seatbelt. Wanda sat up straighter, her hand clenching into a fist.

"You-"

"You know what?" Ink said, raising his voice, "I think we should all cool it for a few minutes, okay? I think that would be really good."

A stony silence descended on them. Wanda folded her arms and looked at Ink. Even though she was grateful for what he had just done, she noted that he didn't seem to have any scrapes or bruises on him.

She'd been through hell, had to cover for him, and now he was just sitting there. What had he been doing that required so much of his damn attention?

"So, we destroyed the room?" asked Ink.

"Yep," Peter said.

"Everything in it?"

"Scarlet voodooed it," Peter said, "Has there ever been anything left when she's done with it?"

Ink turned to her, his face an apology. Her aching limbs screamed for attention, and she gritted her teeth.

"Sorry I wasn't there to help," he said, "I had this thing-"

"And I had to pick up your slack," Wanda said, "Next time, get your shit together."

Ink turned away and looked out the window. Wanda rolled her eyes and did the same. She hoped that they could get back to the hideout soon. Maybe she could take a bath before collapsing if nothing got in her way.

They pulled in and Wanda all but kicked her door open. Peter was standing by her when she got out. He looked a little concerned, and she made a dismissive gesture with her hand. She hadn't made it this far to look weak now.

They walked into the living room and she saw Lorna reading a newspaper. Magneto always liked to have them around, to keep up with current events. Wanda supposed Lorna had finished the chores and had nothing better to do than to read it.

Her sister looked up, her smile dimming when she saw them. Lorna threw the newspaper aside and got to her feet.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Of course," Wanda said.

The door shut. She knew that Astra and Ink were walking in behind them.

"Some people just screwed up, that's all," she said.

Wanda heard Ink take a sharp breath, and then heard his usual footsteps as he headed to his room. Astra's footsteps followed seconds after. Good riddance to both of them. Maybe she could ask Magneto to just be put on missions with Peter in the future. At least she could depend on him.

Now she could finally get back to her room.

"I was um, wondering if I could talk to you two about something," Lorna said.

Or maybe she could take five minutes and talk to her sister.

"Shoot," Peter said.

Lorna began chewing on her lip. Wanda sat down on the couch, feeling the urge to just fall asleep and damn the consequences.

"I said shoot," said Peter, "I don't have all day."

"I was wondering if I could call mom," Lorna said.

Wanda felt the air leave the room. She stared at her sister. What had she just said?

"You want to do what?"

Peter's voice cut through the air like a knife. Wanda saw Lorna wince, her hands clasped tightly behind her back.

"I just thought...well, it's been two years," Lorna said, "I thought that maybe I could-"

"Hell no."

Lorna winced again, and Wanda cleared her throat. Her brother didn't have the faintest sense of what tact meant, and she had the feeling that this particular incident needed to be handled delicately. So, even though she wanted to go back to ten minutes ago when she'd thought she could get some rest, she resolved to say something.

"Lorna, you can't do that," she said.

"Why though?" Lorna said.

"Well-" Wanda tried.

"Because it's a dumbass idea," said Peter, "They're probably tapping her phones right now, waiting to see if one of us contacts her. Didn't you do any of the reading that Mags gave us?"

"I did."

"So you know what I'm talking about?" Peter asked.

"I know," Lorna mumbled, "I just thought...it's been years. They might've forgotten about us."

"Or they might not have," snorted Peter, "I broke Mags out of the Pentagon. I don't think that they're gonna forget that any time soon."

He shook his head.

"Seriously Lorna," he said, "You've got a brain. Use it."

"Peter," Wanda snapped.

It took her a moment to realize she hadn't called him Quicksilver. She could tell that he noticed it right away, and his eyes narrowed.

"Wan-duh," Peter snapped back, "It was a dumb idea, and you know it was."

"Maybe we could visit?" asked Lorna, "Or write a letter. Or something. Just...just contact her. That's all I want."

Peter turned back to Lorna. He put his hands in his pockets and took a sharp breath.

"Why would you even want to do that?" he asked.

Lorna swallowed hard, looking between the two of them.

"It's been a long time," she said, "I...she's probably worried about us. I didn't want to say anything when this first started, but-"

"Let's get one thing straight," said Peter.

He leaned down so that he was eye level with Loran. Wanda shifted slightly as her sister moved back a bit.

"Mom doesn't give a damn about us," Peter said, "Never did, never will."

"I...that's not true," said Lorna.

How long had Lorna been this naïve? Wanda wondered if maybe they should have said something earlier to her. Her naivety had been kind of cute when she was younger, but now that she was older it was frustrating.

"Okay, Lorna, grow up," Peter said, "She didn't like our mutations, and she sure as hell wouldn't like to see what we're doing with them now."

"I-"

"Here's what it comes down to," said Peter, "If you wanna talk to her, go ahead."

Lorna perked up at once, but Wanda felt a sinking feeling in her gut. He couldn't be doing this.

"But it's her or us," Peter said, "So if you do that, then don't bother coming back."

"What?" Lorna whispered.

"That's not fair," said Wanda.

"It's true though," Peter said, "So what's it gonna be Lorna?"

Lorna bowed her head. There was a slight slumping in her shoulders, a defeat that Wanda hadn't seen before.

"I won't call," she said.

"Good," Peter said.

He took his goggles off.

"I'm gonna head upstairs," he said, "Scarlet, you should get some rest. You don't look so hot."

She glared at him, but there was a woosh and he was gone. Wanda looked at Lorna, looked at the way her shoulders were still slumped.

"Lorna, Peter's never been good at this sort of thing," she said, "He was...cruel, but also right. You do see that, don't you?"

"...yes," Lorna said.

The word sounded more like a question, but it was good enough. Wanda pushed herself off the couch and headed off to her room. She had been right: it was a bad day.


	15. Chapter 15

Ever since those government weirdos had gotten the jump on him Peter had liked sleeping on the second floor. He'd liked the opportunity of retreating. Being on the second floor gave him a few moments to get that time.

It was why, once heard the noises on the first floor, he knew that something was wrong. Peter grabbed his goggles and rushed downstairs. He saw three men in SWAT gear, night vision goggles pulled in front of their face.

Peter's eyes narrowed and he considered his options. They had, of course, trained in case something like this happened. He knew what he was supposed to do, even though it seemed like a waste of time.

Even so, he ran upstairs to Magneto's room. The place looked clinical when he rushed in, the strategic maps on the wall and names the only thing to show that someone hung around there. He ignored it and gave him a quick shake.

Peter immediately jumped back afterwards. He was glad that he did, because the first thing Magneto did was punch the air where he'd been a moment before. He'd been warned before about his leader's weird reflexes.

Magneto pushed himself up, and Peter jerked a thumb downstairs. Magneto's jaw became set and he grabbed the helmet on the nightstand next to him.

"Government?" Magneto muttered.

"Is there anybody else?" asked Peter.

Magneto paused at that, but put the helmet on headed out. Peter fell into step behind him. He was about to make a remark about how maybe they should wake the others, he wasn't sure how many there were, when he heard gunshots down the hall.

Without waiting for Magneto to say anything, Peter ran towards the noise. Wanda's room was there. As he rounded the corner he made out someone surrounded in red light going over the staircase.

Wanda walked out of her room, her auburn hair in disarray and tugging on a red bathrobe.

"The hell?" she said.

Peter was about to tell her what was going on when the windows shattered. They both fell to the floor, covering their heads. Peter felt some of the glass scratch his arms and, since his eyes were protected by his goggles, he looked up.

A bright light met him, and Peter had to blink to adjust. They were using spotlights. He suddenly felt something gnawing him in his gut. This wasn't a few guys that they had sent in. If they had spotlights, then they probably had a ton of people.

He pushed himself up and three SWAT personnel came in. They were immediately flung back, the metal in their outfits rattling. Magneto rushed downstairs after them.

"Quicksilver, make sure everyone knows!" he said.

Peter nodded and looked over at Wanda. She looked pissed. That was good.

"Go and make sure that Lorna's okay," she said.

"Don't worry: I'll make sure Astra teleports her out," he said, "Just like the plan."

She jerked her head briefly and got to her feet. They both knew the evacuation plan if things got too hot. Astra was supposed to teleport Lorna out as soon as possible to a secondary location, and then come back to assist and evacuate the rest of them.

Three SWAT personnel came in through the shattered window. Wanda flexed her fingers, the red light and sparks already dancing around them.

"Go," she said, "I've got them."

Peter raced downstairs. He wasn't sure what he expected to see when he came down. He sure as hell hadn't expected to see half of a militia there. He felt himself pale as he watched the rest of his team members fight, bullets flying through the air.

As he ran around them, he wondered why Magneto wasn't stopping them. It took him a moment to realize that, while not all of the guardsmen were using them, some of them had plastic guns. He immediately confiscated as many as he could, his arms full.

Peter was congratulating himself when he saw Astra teleport to the other side of the room. She stabbed someone, and he ran next to her.

"You got Lorna, right?" he asked.

"I can't find your bratty little sister," hissed Astra, "And I'm not going to waste time looking for her when all this is going on!'

Peter's mouth went dry. She hadn't been able to find Lorna? He quickly scanned the living room. Toad had come down, and he could see that he was doing alright. Peter couldn't see Ink or Lorna anywhere though. Surely the gun fire would have drawn them to the front of the house?

He dropped the guns and began searching. The hideout wasn't particularly big, but it did take him a little bit of time to get around. He passed Ink's room and nearly tripped over something in the hallway.

Peter stalled and slid for a few feet. It felt like someone had mopped and then dumped a bucket of water over everything. He began hopping to keep his balance. When he did, he noticed something sticky on his feet. He looked down and saw that he was standing in a pool of blood.

He shuddered involuntarily, but the shuddering stopped when he realized who the blood belonged to. Ink was lying on the floor, surrounded by six SWAT members. Peter knelt by his side, ignoring the blood, ignoring everything except the fact that he didn't think Ink was breathing.

It took too long to see the bullet hole in his forehead. Peter fell backwards, his eyes stinging and his throat swelling. It wasn't like he hadn't seen dead people before. He'd killed several people in the last few years, watched the little bit that made them them disappear.

He'd never seen it happen to someone he cared about though.

"Goddammit Ink," he choked out, "Goddammit."

He swallowed, searching for some sort of a reprieve. The gunfire continued in the living room, and it sounded like a raging cacophony in his ears. Peter stumbled towards the wall, his hands and feet coated thinly with the blood.

"Goddammit," he said, "Goddammit."

He took in a harsh breath, forcing himself to look away. He had come down the hall for Lorna, and he needed to make sure that she was okay. He forced himself to his feet, slipping a little when he did so. So much blood.

Peter decided at once not to think anymore, to ignore what he had just seen. He wouldn't be able to move if he kept thinking. He ran down the hall, his eyes still stinging. He had to be more than his emotions, ignore them as much as possible. He had to find Lorna and get out of there.

He found his sister soon enough, standing at the end of the hall staring out the window. Her mouth was open slightly, her green eyes shocked and dead at the same time. Anger burst inside him. They were all fighting for their lives and she was just standing there, looking out a window, making herself a target?

She might only be fourteen, but he knew that she could do a helluva lot better than this.

"Lorna!" he hissed.

She turned to him, the dead look leaving her eyes and getting replaced with fear.

"Peter," she whispered.

He grabbed her arm.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed.

"Peter," she repeated.

"Yeah, it's me!" he said, "We're in the middle of a situation!"

Her lips moved wordlessly. He wondered if she was going to try to justify her inaction, but there was no excuse. Not for this.

"Peter," she said at last, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Don't you dare cry!" Peter snapped, "What the hell kind of a right do you have to cry?"

The tears stopped before they began, and her lips began moving without sound again. He wasn't going to deal with this. Peter would have to talk to her later. He grabbed her arm and she jerked away. Her eyes were looking at the room, looking at anything but him.

Great. She heard some gunfire and went into shock. He grabbed her arm again, trying to pull her into a position where he could just run with her. Peter heard the gunshot at the same time that he felt it ripping through his leg.

He shouted from pain and surprise, falling to the floor. When he managed to turn he saw two SWAT members standing there. He wanted to run up to them, shove their guns where the sun didn't shine, but he was all too aware of the pain in his leg.

Peter saw them level their guns again before being engulfed in red light. There was a crunching noise, heard their screams. Wanda came into the room a minute later and rushed to his side.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I'm not dead if that's what you mean" Peter said.

Wanda gave a shaky sigh before looking up at Lorna. Her eyes hardened.

"We need to get out of here," she said.

Lorna looked at her, blinking.

"Wanda," she said.

"We can talk later," Wanda said, "I'm not making Peter's mistake and waiting for you."

She grabbed Lorna's arm with one hand. She used the other hand to support Peter and the three of them began moving towards the living room. Before they got there Astra appeared in front of them. There was a gash on her arm, but other than that she looked fine.

"Oh good, all three of you," she said dryly, "Now I just need to find Ink-"

"Ink's dead," Peter said.

Astra raised her eyebrows, but grabbed the three of them. When the world stopped spinning he saw a new room. It was cheaply furnished, but Peter just wanted to be somewhere without gunfire. The pain in his leg notwithstanding, he was just grateful for the silence.

Magneto was already there, as well as Toad. There were medical supplies, and Wanda grabbed a kit. She began applying pressure to Peter's wound, and Peter gritted his teeth against the pain. Astra sat down and leaned her head back.

"You were not supposed to take me!" Magneto hissed, "Not until everyone else was out."

"You were closer."

"That's no excuse," Magneto said, "And by my count you left Ink behind!"

"Speedster said he's dead," said Astra.

The calm brought on by the room's silence suddenly disappeared. Magneto's eyes met Peter's. He nodded.

"Where?" he asked.

"Hallway by the second staircase," Peter managed.

"Astra, retrieve the body," Magneto said.

"Excuse me?" asked Astra, "I'm not going back there for some corpse!"

"Do you have any idea what they do to our dead!" Magneto thundered.

Astra shrank back. A moment later she disappeared. Magneto sighed and knelt next to Wanda.

"The bullet went through the leg," he said, "It should heal in a month or two."

"A month?" Peter said, "I can't run without a damn leg!"

Astra reappeared. She had Ink's arm over her shoulders, and she laid him down on the couch. Lorna made a strangled noise in the back of her throat.

"Goddammit, get it together!" Peter yelled.

Magneto frowned as he looked over at them, but Peter didn't care if he was making a scene.

"You're fourteen now!" Peter said, "You're gonna see some shit, okay? Just make sure no one gets shot next time!"

Lorna looked down. He thought she was crying, and he felt a stab of guilt. Wanda tightened the bandage on his leg and he swore from the pain.

"I understand tonight was difficult," Wanda said, her voice tight, "But I saw what happened Lorna. You could've gotten yourself and Quicksilver killed. Don't ever put me in a position where I have to watch people point guns at my siblings like that ever again."

She picked up a box of bandages and tossed them to Lorna.

"Put something on your feet before they get infected," she said, "And, in the future, try to avoid broken glass."

Peter saw Lorna pick up the box. He noticed then that her feet had blood on them. When had that happened?

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Just don't do it again," Wanda said.

"She won't."

Peter looked up. Magneto was watching the three of them, his expression grim.


	16. Chapter 16

The knocking on the door was loud and insistent. Charles wheeled down the hall, Hank at his side, already knowing what he was going to encounter. Most of the mutants who came to his school nowadays knocked timidly, as though they weren't sure they had a right to be there. There were few people who knocked this demandingly.

"Do you want me to...?" Hank said.

They exchanged a look. It seemed that he wasn't the only one who knew.

"Yes, if you could get the door," said Charles.

"I mean, if you'd rather do this in your office upstairs-" Hank said.

The pounding became louder.

"No," Charles said, "I think I'd rather meet him here before he wakes up the whole school."

Hank sighed and stood by the door. Like Charles, it appeared that he understood that it was either talk to him briefly or call the police. Seeing how the latter wasn't really an option, they would have to make do with the former. It was best to get whatever this was over with.

Charles folded his hands in his lap and nodded. Hank yanked the door open and Charles was once again face to face with his old friend. Erik looked as though he hadn't slept in a few days, and his face was drawn and tight.

That much he'd expected. He hadn't expected to see the three people behind him, looking very, very confused. Charles recognized Peter at once. It had caused him a brief pang of pain when he'd realized that Peter had sought out Magneto. He'd recognized him at once on the news.

It was a little more difficult to recognize the girl with the auburn hair, but he'd seen her on the news a few times. A name like The Scarlet Witch stuck in the memory. He couldn't quite make out the third figure, mostly because Peter and the other were tightly clustered together.

It didn't really matter, since they were going to be leaving immediately.

"Charles," Erik said.

"Erik," he said, "What do you think you're doing here?"

Erik jammed his hands into his pockets, letting out a harsh breath. Hank stood at the door frame, perhaps getting ready to slam the door if necessary. It wouldn't do much if Magneto decided he really wanted to get in, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Not quite the greeting I was hoping for," Erik said dryly.

"I don't have time for niceties. You're a wanted criminal coming into a school," Charles said, "I have children here."

Erik moved slightly, and Charles was able to fully see the third figure. The third figure's eyes were wide and nervous. He didn't think that she was underweight, but there was something about her expression that made her look thinner than she was.

She was also, very clearly, a young girl.

"So do I," Erik said.

The Scarlet Witch put her hand on the girl's shoulder, looking at Erik questioningly. Charles redirected his attention to the young girl, who seemed to be drawing herself in. Her face had that same haunted, sleepless look that Erik's did.

"Oh Erik," Charles said, "What have you done?"

Erik didn't say anything, which was more disturbing than he'd like to admit. If Erik truly thought he hadn't done anything to harm the girl, even if he was judging by his own warped scale, than he would have sneered at Charles's words. The silence was telling.

"Come in," he said, "But for God's sake, don't let any of the students see you."

Erik nodded, and gestured to the three. The Scarlet Witch's hand was firmly on the girl's shoulder, but her attention was divided. She started looking around in amazement at the foyer, and Charles was painfully reminded of the way most of his students looked when they came in the front door the first time. The unnamed girl might have been a child by his reckoning, but Peter and The Scarlet Witch weren't much older.

Peter looked considerably less impressed, but he kept sneaking glances at the girl and The Scarlet Witch. Hank shut the door and walked behind Charles, pushing the wheelchair towards the office on the ground floor.

_What do you think?_ Charles thought.

_They smell nervous,_ Hank thought.

_I can imagine. _

_Nervous with the smell of old blood_, thought Hank, _Something went really, really wrong._

Charles sighed. He'd been afraid of that.

_And, I'm not sure,_ Hank thought, _But...why those two? He could've had any of his other goons with them, but he picked those two. _

_Those three._

_Two,_ thought Hank, _I think we both know why the girl's here._

Charles suspected anyway. He snuck a quick glance at the tree, saw the way that they were moving protectively around the girl.

_We've long speculated on whether or not The Scarlet Witch was related to Peter,_ Charles thought, _I think she is, and I think the girl is too. _

_A second sibling?_

_Perhaps,_ Charles thought, opening the door to the library, _Let's see if we can't get any more information._

Hank wheeled him to a small circle of armchairs. The Scarlet Witch closed the door behind her, and Charles gestured to the seats in front of him.

"Have a seat," he said.

"I'd prefer to stand," said Erik, "This shouldn't take long."

Peter and The Scarlet Witch started exchanging looks. Charles could feel his worry increase.

"Erik, after what happened, you can't just pop in like this," he said, "I have a building filled with children, and I can't risk exposing them to the government."

"I know exactly what it is you do here," Erik said, "And, to some extent, I'm impressed. You finally had the strength to finish what you started."

Fighting the urge to ask Erik just what it was he had accomplished lately, Charles leaned forward.

"This place is the safest place I know for mutants, but anonymity is still our biggest protection," he said, "If an extremely wanted terrorist begins making frequent house calls, then I don't think that we'll have that protection for long."

"Don't worry," Erik said, "I don't think I'll be making this a habit."

He gestured to the girl.

"This is Lorna," he said.

Lorna started, her green eyes beginning to resemble a deer watching an oncoming car. She knew what was about to happen. Charles put on a gentle smile for her, preparing to use every technique he'd ever used when dealing with the traumatized children who had come through his doors.

"My name is Professor Charles Xavier," he said, "I run this school."

"That's new," said Peter, "That and the wheelchair. When the hell did that happen?"

"Quicksilver," Erik said sharply.

Peter fell silent and Erik looked back at Charles.

"As you maybe aware, Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch have been fighting alongside me for around two years now," he said.

"I know," Charles said, "You're on the news rather frequently."

He couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice. Even though the public was still divided, the poster boy for mutants was quickly becoming Magneto.

"Lorna is their younger sister," Erik said.

"Why are you telling him this?" asked The Scarlet Witch.

Erik closed his eyes, fighting something. They didn't know, or refused to do so. He wasn't sure.

"I'm telling him this because Lorna is about to become his newest student," he said.

Lorna bowed her head. The Scarlet Witch's grip became tighter, and Peter pushed in front of Erik. Charles noticed that Peter was limping.

"No way in hell," he said, "We had an agreement!"

"Which your sister broke," said Erik.

"I didn't do anything," Lorna said, her voice quivering.

"Exactly," Erik said.

"Not following," snapped Peter.

Erik crossed his arms. Charles felt Hank move nearer to him, perhaps wondering what they were supposed to do. He made a gesture with his hand, hoping that Hank would remain silent for the next few minutes. Something very strange was unfolding, something Charles had never thought he would be privy to.

Not again.

* * *

><p>Peter was mad as hell. First Magneto took them out into the countryside, not telling them where the hell they were going. Now he was telling them that he was going to ditch his baby sister with hippie guy.<p>

Granted, Charles had shaved, but still.

"She didn't break any damn agreement!" Peter said.

"I remember things a little differently," said Magneto, "You will recall, I suppose, when I said that she could come with us?"

"Duh!" Peter snapped.

"I don't think you do," Magneto said, "Because when I let her join, I told you that if she was ever a burden to us, or if the danger became to great, she would come here."

"What?" Wanda said.

Shit. It wasn't as though he hadn't meant to tell Wanda that: he'd just never thought it would come up. Now that it had, he couldn't help but feel afraid.

"Well, yeah," Peter said, "But-"

"But what?" said Magneto, "Tonight, you had to go search for her when Astra should have been able to find her easily. You weren't with us when the rest of the troops came in, couldn't help us. You were shot!"

He looked at Lorna. Tears were welling in her eyes and Magneto shook his head.

"Lorna, this is not to be cruel to you, but please understand what happened," he said, "I am quite fond of you, but I let that blind me to the fact that you're not ready."

"Please," Lorna said, "You don't know what happened. You don't know-"

"Lorna, shhhh," Wanda said.

She put her arms protectively around Lorna.

"We can't just leave her here," Wanda said.

"You can, and you will if you wish to stay with the Brotherhood," said Magneto, "Think about what happened tonight, really think about it. Your sister is an exceptional child in many ways, but she is not ready to be part of the Brotherhood. Not until she's seventeen."

He gestured around him.

"She can spend those years safely here," he said, "And that is my final word on the matter."

He looked over his shoulder.

"I assume you will take her in, won't you Charles?"

Peter glared at the man, willing him to say no. If he did, then the might have a chance to convince Magneto. Despite his wishes, Charles sighed and nodded.

"Any mutant in need will always be welcome here," he said.

"Good," Magneto said.

The floor fell out below his feet. He looked desperately at Magneto. Magneto sighed and looked at Charles. Charles gestured to Hank, who pushed him out of the room. Magneto followed him out.

"Again, I'm not saying this to be cruel," he said, "But I will not change my mind. Say your goodbyes, and then we have to go."

"Wait-" said Peter.

Magneto shut the door behind him. Peter felt his breath come in choked gasps.

"Please, please don't leave me," Lorna sobbed, "Please! I'm sorry!"

Peter raked his fingers through his hair. Wanda had her hand in front of her mouth, her shoulders shaking.

"Lorna, this place will be safe for you," said Wanda, her words halting and tears gathering in her eyes, "I...we can't...we can't have a repeat of what happened last night-"

"I wasn't a burden, I swear!" Lorna said, "I got up when I heard and-"

"You were though," said Peter.

He saw Lorna's eyes widen, the tears still flowing freely.

"Just...just listen," she said.

"No Lorna, it's time we stopped fooling ourselves," Peter said, "Let's face it: you're too..."

Kind? Gentle? Weak? None of these words were good, but they summed her up. All three of them meant her, but he didn't say any of them.

"...too you."

The words were mumbled, barely more than a whisper, and he wasn't sure if anyone heard them. His sisters certainly looked like they hadn't. Peter was glad. Even if they were true he didn't want to say them.

"You just...you need to be safe," he said.

The word was bitter, made worse by what Lorna said next.

"I don't want safe!" she said, "I want you two!"

"It doesn't matter what you want," Peter said, "You're not ready."

"Wanda, Peter, please!" Lorna said.

Wanda closed her eyes.

"We can't take you with us," she said.

"Then...then stay here with me!" Lorna pleaded.

Peter shook his head angrily.

"You don't know what you're asking!" he said, "We can't give this up for you. Can't you see that?"

Lorna stared at him, her face soaked and her hands limp by her side.

"You promised," she whispered.

There was silence, and then Wanda kissed the side of Lorna's head.

"We love you," she said, "But we can't do this. Peter's right: you're not ready for this Lorna."

"We...we'll come back for you when you're older," Peter said, "Got it?"

Lorna watched as Wanda took her hands off her shoulders. Peter turned to Wanda, grabbed her trembling hand with his own.

"No, don't," Lorna said.

Peter continued walking, his movements unbearably slow. He wished he could just speed them away, but that would be too easy. He stepped out into the foyer and saw Magneto standing there. He nodded to them and then opened the door.

"Don't! Please!" Lorna screamed.

He forced himself not to look back as the front door shut.


	17. Chapter 17

_You left her._

Peter clenched his hand into a fist, staring out the window. Night had turned into day, and they kept driving. It was the longest day of his life. No matter how hard he'd tried, he hadn't been able to sleep that night. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Lorna weeping, begging him to take her with him.

He hated the helpless feeling that he got inside himself when he thought about it. What else could he have done? Magneto wouldn't take her with them, and he'd said that the school was safe. He clenched his fist tighter until he felt blood seeping through his fingers.

"Peter."

He reached out with his spare hand and took Wanda's. He couldn't care less that she wasn't calling him Quicksilver. He didn't feel much like Quicksilver at the moment. He just felt sick to his stomach.

"I know Wanda," he said, "I know."

She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.

"We left her," Wanda said.

The variation of the words that he had said to himself for hours clanged in his head.

"I know," he said.

"Peter...how could we?"

"I know," he said.

Tears threatened. He tried blinking them away, tried thinking about anything other than the way Lorna had called after them. Her sobs were still echoing in his head.

"She's strong though," he said, "If she'd been a little more ready...if...goddammit."

He unclenched his fist and ran his fingers through his hair.

"We didn't have another choice," he said at last.

"We did though," Wanda said.

Peter stared at her, and she looked down.

"We could have stayed with her," Wanda muttered.

"No," Peter said, "We couldn't have."

"We could have."

A throbbing doubt began to grow in his mind, adding to the strange symphony of Lorna's cries. He set his jaw.

"If you really believe that, then get out of the car and walk back to the school," he said, "I'll follow. Hell, I'll even carry you."

It was a gamble, but not a big one. Wanda didn't so much as move a muscle.

"We should have stayed together," she said at last.

"Yeah," Peter said, "But..."

He looked around the car. Toad was curled up in the next row, nursing a broken arm. Astra and Magneto were in the front seat, talking about something in hushed whispers. Ink was in the trunk. Magneto had said they would bury him at their next location.

"...this is where we belong," he said.

"But Lorna belonged with us," said Wanda, "That means she belonged here."

"No," Peter said.

He bowed his head.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Magneto was right," he said.

"Peter-"

"We loved her, so we blinded ourselves to what we needed to do," Peter said, "I mean, Lorna...I hate to say it, but the one time she was exposed to what the Brotherhood did, she failed. She was too young to get caught up in this sort of thing, and we didn't take that into account."

Wanda snorted.

"If that was true then we should've left her with mom," she said.

He shook his head.

"Don't be stupid," he said, "I wouldn't have left her there for the world. But...she was too young for the Brotherhood. Too...too..."

Words failed him for a moment, and he floundered. Once more he was at a loss to explain what was going through his mind. How exactly was he supposed to describe his sister's inherent sweetness, inherent naivety? How could he sum up all of the reasons why she hadn't been ready, reasons that he had blinded himself to?

This time, he said nothing. Wanda bit back a sob next to him.

"We should've gone to Canada," she said.

"What?" Peter said, "And give up what we're doing? Wanda…I don't know if I could do that."

His sister continued to look down. He saw a few tears fall down her cheeks, and Peter could feel the same thing happen to him. There was a small snort from the front seat, and Peter resolved to beat the shit out of Astra next time he got the opportunity.

"Maybe there wasn't an easy answer for this one," Wanda said.

He squeezed her hand again, hoping for something to ground him.

"No," he said, "I don't think so."

Peter nodded again, still seeing Lorna's bright green eyes and sweet smile.

"You know how Lorna is though," he said, "She always enjoyed school. She'll love it there. I mean, you saw the library. There's probably a lot of books. It'll be good for her, kind of like a break."

"Maybe," Wanda said, "And when we come for her…she'll be ready."

"Yeah," said Peter, "It'll go by like that."

He snapped his fingers. Wanda nodded slightly. Peter managed a small smile before he leaned back and looked out the window.

_Three more years Lorna,_ he thought, _Just three more years, and then everything's gonna be okay._

* * *

><p>Charles coughed uncertainly before knocking on the door. He wasn't sure why he did that, except for the fact that he had to do something to dislodge the lump in his throat.<p>

He'd dealt with students who had come to him feeling broken and powerless. Charles had come across children who had been hated or ignored by their families. He'd seen runaways and orphans, children who had been abandoned by their parents.

He'd never seen a girl who had been abandoned by her siblings, by the Brotherhood. It wasn't permanent, but still. Erik had, in the few minutes he'd had for a private conversation, let him know that he had every intention of coming back for Lorna. There had been a brief informational period about the circumstances surrounding her departure and what she could do, and Charles suspected that his friend valued her mutation because it was so like his own.

But Erik had also made it very clear that he didn't want Charles intervening in her world view. Charles wondered if his friend had truly lost his mind thinking that far in advance, but he had told him evenly and sharply that free will was the only thing he had ever endorsed at his school.

Conversation had ended when her siblings had come through the door. Lorna had followed them, pleading for them to wait, but the door had slammed behind them. When it had, Charles had seen the light go out of her eyes.

He recognized the feelings that must accompany such an expression. Thus, he knew that he had to tread delicately.

"Lorna?" he asked, "It's the Professor."

The door stared back at him, unyielding. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply.

"Lorna, I need to talk to you about a few things," he said.

There was no answer. Perhaps it was too soon. He wondered if he should give her more time, if he should have waited longer, but he figured that time really was of the essence. She was young, she was alone and, more than anything, she was heartbroken.

He tried the door and, to his surprise, found that it was unlocked. He wheeled in and saw that Lorna was sitting, curled up, on the window seat in her room. Her back was turned to him and, instead of the dark brown hair he'd seen her with the night before, green hair tumbled down her back.

Hiding his surprise, Charles closed the door behind him and wheeled further in.

"It happened while I was sleeping."

Charles stopped, making sure to keep a respectful distance between himself and the child.

"Oh?" he asked.

"I woke up and it was like this," she said, her tone dead, "I didn't dye it."

"I believe you," Charles said, "Mutations can be unpredictable."

He decided not to add that such a thing was only likely under extreme stress. It wasn't necessary though: Lorna didn't say anything back. Charles took out a folder from the side pocket of his wheelchair. He cleared his throat again, this time because he wasn't sure if what he was about to say would be welcome.

"I was thinking that we could go over your course schedule today," he said.

Again, Lorna didn't respond. He hadn't really expected her to. He'd hoped that a task to distract her would be helpful. It's how he'd handled things. It wasn't the best approach, but it was the only thing that had gotten him through the first few years.

"Everyone else is about a month into the term," Charles said, "So it may be a little more difficult to transition you into classes. I know that you...didn't really have schooling where you were, but you could catch up. It's not impossible: I just want you to know that you may have to have some extra tutoring sessions."

More silence. Charles put the folder on the table nearest to her.

"When you're ready, please take a look at them," he said, "It...there are several courses that I think you'll benefit from in there. I circled some ones that I think you might like. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me."

One of her hands pressed up against the glass of the window, her fingers tapping absently against the glass.

"I'll leave you," he said, "Lunch is soon. I suppose that you didn't go down for breakfast."

The random tappings on the glass continued. He hadn't thought so.

"I'll have someone bring up a tray," Charles said, "You need to keep your strength up."

She stopped tapping the glass and began tracing random patterns on it.

"Right," he said, "I...I will see you again soon."

Feeling defeated, Charles moved to wheel out of the room. At the last minute he stopped. Lorna looked small and fragile sitting on the window seat. Her fingers had resumed tapping absently. He hadn't intended or wanted to share this with her, but he couldn't help but sympathize with the young girl in front of him.

"If it makes any difference," Charles said quietly, "I know what you're going through."

She switched to tracing patterns once again. Perhaps she didn't even know she was doing it.

"I appreciate that you care," she said, "But you really don't."

Charles swallowed.

"People describe it as being 'broken,' but you and I know that it doesn't feel like you're broken," he said, "It feels like you're empty, like there's just space and air where your soul used to be. There is no ground, there is no sky. The world passes around you, but you're not in it, not a part of it."

Her fingers stilled.

"But you still have your sense of self, still a niggling doubt that you should have something where that emptiness is," Charles continued, "But you're not feeling loss, not really. All you're feeling is alone."

She turned to him, her eyes wide and rimmed with red. He suspected she had cried all night.

"It hurts to the point of numbness," Charles said, "And all you want to do is feel something else, but you just don't have the strength."

Tears welled up in Lorna's eyes. Charles folded his hands in his lap.

"I understand Lorna," he said, "And I know you don't want to be here. I didn't want to be here when I was your age."

It was getting harder to speak now, but he didn't see any other alternative.

"But things weren't so bad," he said, "I had my sister."

He cast his eyes downwards, a wealth of emotions forcing their way to the front of his mind.

"While the circumstances upon which she and I parted are rather different from what happened to you and your siblings, the pain remains the same," he said, "As does the feeling. I may never know who was really at fault for our separation, I want to blame myself completely but I'm not sure if that's me or the guilt talking, but after a while it became immaterial. We are still apart."

He forced himself to look at Lorna. She wasn't crying, but her entire body was curling tighter in on itself.

"But in your case, things are different," he said, "The parting was not your fault, and you will see your family again. Erik was very clear about that."

A wrinkle creased her forehead.

"Erik?" she asked.

"Magneto," Charles corrected himself, "He mentioned coming back when you were older."

"They did too," said Lorna, "Three years."

She looked back out the window.

"Three years," she repeated.

There was a hopeless tone in her words, and Charles could only sigh. Three years was an eternity for someone like Lorna.


	18. Chapter 18

The defenses at the base were more difficult to get through than Wanda had thought. Her powers had grown considerably since she had been a young girl earning pitiful tips at a diner, but it was still getting hard to push through.

She wished that she knew a little something more about electricity. That might have made it easier. If she could visualize something it usually helped. At the moment though, all she felt was frustration.

The last lock undid itself and Wanda stepped in. She peered around the different rows of floppy disks, looking for the correct one. It didn't take her long to find the box of floppy disks marked "BH 3680." If they had used a more creative organizational system, it might have taken her a little longer to find the information the military had accumulated on her and her team. Instead, they had made it quite easy.

She undid her briefcase and slipped the floppy disks in. It seemed like everything was on floppy disks these days, with so few things on paper. She wondered why that was. Floppy disks were so much easier to take than thick sheafs of paper.

Wanda was just about to close the briefcase when she noticed the symbol of an eagle on the side of the box. She frowned and picked it up, examining the seal a little more. It looked like the files had been supplemented by someone.

The seal had the silver symbol of an eagle with oustretched wings, although it closely resembled a seal of some kind. Her thumb ran over the letters "SSR." It wasn't any military branch that she was familiar with, and that troubled her. She'd been under the impression that she knew most of them.

Deciding to ponder it later, she put the disks into the briefcase and snapped it shut. She smoothed her hair before walking at a crisp pace through the door. Now that she was a little older it was easier to do a covert mission. People were more likely to believe that she worked there now.

It surprised her sometimes how little it took for people to ignore her. Her disguises always involved copious amounts of make-up, both visible and invisible. She had often used darker foundation to change her skin tone, dark eyeliner to make her eyes harsher. Every now and then she would add a wig, but it wasn't needed as much as she'd thought it would be. It appeared that thirty minutes and a make-up table were all it took to become someone else.

A few men nodded to her as she walked through the hallway, her heels clicking on the floor. She nodded back to them, carrying their secrets in her briefcase. Wanda turned a few corners before heading into the open air.

It didn't take long to get to her rendezvous point. Peter, as ever, was waiting for her. A cap had been pulled low over his head and a pair of thick sunglasses obscured his eyes. She gave him a crisp nod as she got into the car. They didn't break character for another three blocks.

"Could you have taken any longer?" Peter asked, "It's damn hot in here."

"Don't be such a baby," said Wanda, tugging off her uniform hat and letting her hair fall down around her shoulders, "You got the cushy job."

"And the boring one," said Peter, "Whatcha got?"

"More disks," she said, opening her briefcase and flipping through them, "Five in all. They have five on us."

"That's not that bad," Peter said.

"I think Magneto would disagree with you," she said.

She turned the box over in her hands.

"Have you ever heard of the SSR?" she asked.

"Don't think so. Who are they?"

"I don't know," Wanda said, "That's why I'm asking you."

She looked down at the box with frustration. Wanda wished she could be like a computer and just read everything they had on them. How long had they been watching them? Months, years?

Obviously there had always been some level of scrutiny. Magneto was categorized as a high profile terrorist, leading a group of highly powered individuals. Some agency or another had always been tracking their movements.

Grabbing these files from a military base was different. That meant that the military considered them a serious threat. Again, there shouldn't have been this much surprise. Peter had broken into the Pentagon. She doubted anyone could forget that. Even Wanda couldn't.

Somehow though, knowing that the entire United States government was against them was a little terrifying. She breathed out the feeling, calming herself. If she voiced any of this, even looked like she was feeling this, then her brother would probably think that she was an idiot.

Peter frowned and scratched the back of his neck.

"You know, that name does sound kinda familiar," he said, "Only kinda though."

"That's kinda reassuring," Wanda said.

"No, no," said Peter, scrunching his nose, "They're the...Strategic...Strategic..."

He made an impatient gesture with his hand.

"The strategic something," he said.

"Great. So now the strategic something is on our tails," said Wanda, "That's lovely."

"More the merrier, right?" Peter said.

Sometimes the things that Peter said made absolutely no sense at all. Wanda undid the cufflinks on her uniform and popped them into her pocket. She bent down and began taking off her heels.

"Whatever you say," she said, "Let's just hope that we know who they are. I don't like unknowns."

"You sound like such a party pooper right now," said Peter, "Where's your sense of fun?"

"Playing second fiddle to my common sense," she said, "You should try it sometime. Shake things up."

"Nah, I'm a creature of habit."

She snorted and grabbed her boots from the back. They were the same cherry-red ones that Peter had stolen for her years ago. Wanda always felt the most like herself when she wore them. She tugged them on, zipping up the sides.

"So, what now?" she asked.

"Home. Duh."

"You are way too old to be saying that," Wanda said.

"I'm only twenty," said Peter, "I can say duh as much as I want. Duh, duh, duh, d-"

She hit him in the arm.

"That's childish, even for you," she said.

Peter shrugged, and Wanda ruffled her hair. There were a few wipes in the glove compartment, which she quickly used to get rid of the rest of the make-up on her face. She pulled down the mirror in the overhead and looked at herself.

Her cheekbones were starting to really come in, and Wanda had to admit that she was a little disappointed. She had never thought that her cheekbones would be this severe and had hoped that she would take after her mother. For all of her complaints about her mother, she had excellent bone structure.

When she'd realized she wasn't going to have her mother's delicate face she had settled for the middling look of her father. However, she hadn't gotten his either. Wanda poked at her face, wondering if maybe her grandmother's genes had something to say about her face.

She wondered if Lorna had gotten her mother's features. Wanda steadied her hand on the mirror before putting it back up. It had been a few months since they had left Lorna at the school. She'd hoped that they would be able to establish some sort of contact with her sister, but Magneto had forbidden it.

That had started another argument, but Magneto pointed out that they couldn't contact Lorna for the same reason why Lorna couldn't contact their mother. Authorities might not be watching the school specifically, but if they found out that someone there was receiving letters or phone calls from them, then they'd know something was up. It was why Xavier had been unhappy that Magneto had come to the school, why they couldn't even visit.

Peter had accepted this quietly, but it made Wanda furious. Yes, Magneto's reasons were right. However, she still didn't see why they had had to leave Lorna behind. Seventeen or not, she was sure she'd have been ready if they had waited another year. Lorna wasn't one to ignore her mistakes: she was one to learn from them. She would have learned from that and been able to fight alongside her siblings.

It wasn't to be though. Every now she wondered how her sister was doing. She knew that Lorna would miss them, and Wanda was missing her too. She was sure that Lorna would have plenty to do at the school though. Her sister would make friends quickly, it was in her nature, and she would probably learn lots of things. The school's library looked as though there were enough books to occupy Lorna for the next few years.

Peter turned a corner and parked. Wanda rubbed her temples, trying to push away thoughts of her baby sister. She grabbed the briefcase and got out, Peter beside her. He rushed forward and the door was open before she walked in.

He locked it behind her and Wanda walked towards the table. Magneto was looking at a map and murmuring things to Astra. Wanda put the briefcase on the table, not bothering to greet them. It rattled the table and Magneto looked up. She gave him a tight smile in return. Their relationship had been strained since Lorna. She wasn't about to argue with him about what had happened, but she damn sure wasn't going to be happy about it.

"I got the disks," Wanda said, "They look like some of them were on loan from the SSR. Know what that is?"

"Strategic Scientific Reserve," said Astra smoothly, "They're a mixture of a combat and research branch, but they operate on a different level than the Department of Defense."

"Oh great," said Wanda.

She rolled her eyes at Peter over her shoulder.

"New friends," she said, "What did I tell you?"

"Hey, you're talking like I attracted them," Peter said, "For all we know, it could have been your voodoo."

"That's one word for it," Astra said.

Wanda looked at her. She had never liked the stupid woman, and ever since Lorna left their relationship had actually gotten worse. She'd thought it was funny, which had resulted in Peter punching her in the face the day after they left Lorna behind over a comment she'd made. It might have gotten worse if Magneto hadn't stepped in.

"I don't remember inviting you to that conversation," she said.

"Both of you," Magneto said, taking the disks out of the briefcase, "We'll have none of that."

She crossed her arms and turned on her back, getting ready to go upstairs and get changed.

"Before you go," Magneto said, "I have a mission for you. You and your brother."

Peter grinned and walked closer to the table. Sighing, Wanda leaned against the table.

"What do you want us to grab?" she asked.

"Nothing. This will require, well, personal skills," Magneto said.

Wanda winced. She didn't like the way he said that. Still not elaborating, Magneto tapped a section of the map. She leaned over, and it took her a moment. After so long stationed in New York, it was weird to be in D.C. There were still a lot of street names that she was learning, but she knew that one.

"That's an expensive part of town," said Wanda.

"Yes, but we've been contacted from someone there," he said, "I think they're about your age, perhaps a few months younger."

"Ooooh, recruitment mission," Peter said

"I'm not sure," said Magneto, "It's why I want you with them. Our contact was...a little mysterious. And they were using a rather interesting name."

Wanda waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't. It would be too easy for him to just tell them what they needed to know. Still, she slid off the table, flipping her hair back again.

"Alright," she said, "Let's get going."


	19. Chapter 19

The place was loaded, and Peter was suitably impressed. Every counter was filled with an item that he wanted to steal, and he wanted to steal it all at the same time. Magneto had told him that he had to be on his best behavior, and there were guards absolutely everywhere, but surely a trinket or two here or there wouldn't hurt.

He was about to take an elaborate snuff box when Wanda caught his eye. She shook her head irritably, and Peter put his hand by his side. His sister had absolutely no sense of humor, did she? It could get irritating at times.

A uniformed man stepped out into the lobby and made a gesture. They followed, Magneto in the front. They walked by several rooms and Peter could hear muted conversation and laughter in turns. He wondered just what the hell this place was.

They were ushered into an elaborate room and the attendant opened the door. A young woman stood at the back of the room, her sweeping white gown brushing the floor. Her icy blonde hair flowed past her shoulders, and snow-white gloves went up to her elbows. She was holding a glass of something that looked expensive.

"Your guests Princess," the attendant said, his tone formal.

"Good. You can go."

The attendant left and shut the door behind them. Peter immediately settled into a chair, leaning back. Wanda shot him another glare, but the chairs were very comfortable. If she wanted to get him out of it then she'd have to drag him out.

The young woman didn't turn around at once. She continued looking at the wall, her finger tapping on the counter. After a moment the young woman turned around and gave him an amused smile.

It might have been the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"I'd say get comfortable, but you beat me to it," she said, putting her glass down.

Peter tried, and failed, to form an articulate response. So he just shrugged.

"Now then, Magneto," she said, "I believe we have some business to discuss."

Magneto gave her a critical look.

"Name," he said.

"Emma Frost," she said.

Magneto snorted.

"No, you're not," he said.

"Yes and no," Emma said, leaning against the side board, "My mother named me after her. Don't tell anyone that though, because some people think I'm her ghost, and that has quite an intimidation factor."

She casually brushed some of her hair off her shoulders.

"And, since I don't want to waste times talking about trivialities, I predate her acquaintance with Shaw by about three years," Emma continued, "The blackmail money she got from my father to hush up my existence kept her living in style for several years."

She gave a laughing shrug and tilted her head to the side.

"My mother and I have quite a bit in common though," she said, "Definitely looks, although perhaps I'm flattering myself to say that I'm as beautiful as she was. Powers and, in a year or two, we'll share the same position within the Hellfire Club."

Magneto crossed his arms. Peter was really lost but, like most times that this happened, he chose to keep his mouth shut.

"I was under the impression that that had disbanded," Magneto said.

"Not quite," said Emma.

She smiled at him. Peter had never seen teeth so white.

"But let's cut to the chase," she said, "I'd like to finish up before dinner, so I would appreciate it if you sent Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch away."

Peter bristled, but he melted at the apologetic smile she flashed his way.

"They can stay where they are," Magneto said sharply.

Emma shrugged gracefully.

"If you wish your subordinates to hear all of your business, so be it," she said.

She stepped forwards, squaring her shoulders.

"To start with, I bear you no ill will for the death of the Black King, and I can't lay any blame for my mother's death at your feet," she said, "That's another thing we should make clear."

"And the point of that speech was?" Magneto asked, "Are you trying to join the Brotherhood and trying to make sure that I won't stab you in the back? I don't kill people that I recruit."

She laughed musically. Peter felt mesmerized by her, even though a small voice said that he should probably be paying more attention to what she was saying. He'd never been good at paying attention anyway.

"No, I can't offer you my services," she said, "I'm not in a position to do so. But what I can offer you is a partnership."

Magneto gave her an even look.

"We've hardly met," he said.

"True," Emma said, "But let's have a frank assessment of your situation."

She made a sweeping gesture with her hand. Now that he looked closer, Peter could see that she was wearing diamond bracelets.

"There are four soldiers at your command, including the two children behind you," she said.

"I'm older than you," Wanda snapped.

Peter made a face. When had she made that assumption? Emma just laughed.

"Only by a little bit," she said, "But hush now, I'm not talking to you."

She turned her attention back to Magneto.

"You're down one soldier, and I have a feeling that you're running short of funds," Emma said, "You may be rather dismissive of people like me: I can see it in your eyes. You think I'm wasting my potential here, don't you?"

"You're throwing parties and dressing in silk, pretending to be your mother," said Magneto, "It's hard for me not to see you as wasting your potential."

Emma's eyes became hard, but her smile stayed in place. It added a brittle quality to it.

"I'm not my mother," she said, "Which is why I'm still alive."

She turned back to the table behind her and poured another drink.

"That doesn't mean I don't want to do anything for the cause," she said, "No doubt you think I'm silly, but let's face the facts. People like you need people like me for funding, recruits, and information. I won't be glorified after you've overthrown the world order, true enough, but I'm more than alright with that."

She gave him another smile. Peter wondered if the muscles in her cheeks hurt.

"I have a business proposal drawn up, just so that we know where we are," she said, "We can keep copies of it, of course. I can't say that such a contract has any legal bearing, but still. It would, I think, do a little bit to help that distrust you carry around like your cape."

She took a sip of her drink.

"So, do we have a deal?" she asked.

Peter looked back at Magneto. He could tell that something terribly important was happening, but he couldn't help but feel a little lost. For one thing, he had no clue why Magneto hadn't just jumped on Emma's offer.

"You are wasting your potential. And I don't think you're silly: I think you're weak," Magneto said, "And I don't think your position is as powerful as you say it is."

Emma's glass wavered a little bit. Peter knew that if he'd seen it, Magneto had too.

"How does funding us further your own ambition?" he asked.

Emma took a sip of her drink. Her eyes flicked around the room for a moment.

"How does not taking my funding further yours?" she asked.

"That depends," said Magneto, "Perhaps my ambitions aren't what you think they are."

"I think they're close enough," Emma said.

She put the glass down. Her hand was steady now, but Magneto continued to watch her.

"What is it you really want?" he asked, "And don't insult me by telling me that you want a partnership."

Emma stared back at Magneto. The two glared at each other. Peter had never seen anyone go so long without blinking. Finally, Emma looked down. Her face was flushed and her expression was angry.

"I need someone killed," she said.

Magneto burst out laughing.

"You can find any hired guns who would do that gladly," Magneto said, "Unfortunately, that is not what we are. Scarlet, Quicksilver, we're leaving."

Peter got reluctantly to his feet. Wanda grabbed his arm and rolled her eyes. He just gave her a shrug and began following Magneto out of the room.

"It's Colonel Stryker," said Emma.

Magneto stopped so fast that Peter almost bumped into him. Very slowly, Magneto's head turned so that he was looking over his shoulder.

"Say that name again," he said.

"You heard me the first time," said Emma, "Don't pretend that you didn't."

When Peter looked back Emma was glaring down at the ground, her eyes narrowed in rage.

"You knew my mother," Emma said, "I can't say she was always there for me, and I can't say she was perfect. In fact, she left a lot to be desired. But she was mine, and when she died Stryker had her sent to some lab to be cut up and tossed aside."

She raised her head.

"At the time, I was being raised with a lovely little family in Alaska," said Emma, "My mother had found them. They were good people. Not too bright, but good. My foster parents died in a car accident, but my sister lived. She raised me before that piece of filth stole me from my home and took me to some hellhole in the middle of nowhere."

Her words became thick and heavy.

"And after experimenting on my for months my sister and her boyfriend came to rescue me. He murdered them both," Emma said, "I didn't know him, not his name, not where he was from, but he loved her enough to die with her. She could have had a future with him, and he took that from her."

Emma's words had become a snarl, and Peter found himself taking a few steps back. She was still mesmerizing, but in a horrifying kind of way.

"You may think I'm weak, and you may hold me in contempt, but I don't give a damn," she said, "I want Stryker taken out, and I want him taken out by mutants. I know he's on your hit list. Just do it when you can."

Magneto turned around fully face her.

"You don't want to take him out yourself?" he asked.

"Of course I do," Emma snapped, "But I'm something of a realist. The biggest thing that I bring to any team is money, influence, and information. In this case that's worth more than my mutation. But you five, you have the power to become something much, much greater."

She squared her shoulders.

"And I refuse to share a world with the man who murdered my family," she said.

Tension radiated through the room. Peter was ready to say something to Magneto, something to get him to agree with her. It wasn't just because she was hot, but her words made him uncomfortable. He'd want the same thing if someone hurt Wanda or lorna.

Magneto took a few steps closer to her. He tapped her once on the forehead and she didn't flinch.

"Now you remind me of your mother," he said.

Peter wondered just what the hell Emma's mother had been like.

"Do we have a deal?" Emma asked.

"Yes," Magneto replied, we have a deal.

As soon as the words left his lips a beatific smile crossed Emma's lips, one that sent chills down Peter's spine.

"Good," she said.


	20. Chapter 20

Lorna was used to pushing herself. She could feel her heart pumping faster as she ran her fourth lap around the school that morning. Most of the windows were still dark in the mansion: no one liked to get up this early in the morning. She didn't even like it, but it was the only time that she could run where there was no one else to disturb her.

The only light that she could see was on in the Professor's office. She wondered if he ever turned the light off. There had never been a day when the window had been dark, when she had known that he had retired for the evening.

He confused her, as did most of the people at the school. Everyone was so careful, so understanding around her. They couldn't know who she was though. Lorna knew that the Professor hadn't told them, hadn't let them know who her siblings were.

She was glad. Not having to see their looks was one less thing that she would have to deal with. Lorna had quickly learned that the people at the school didn't prescribe to Magneto's worldview, the worldview of her siblings. They talked about peaceful demonstrations and legislative action. She wasn't sure that she had ever head the word 'legislative' spoken without scorn with the Brotherhood.

When she completed her fourth lap Lorna stopped running and knelt down, her hands on her knees. Her breath was harsh and her voice felt scratchy. She had never liked running very much, but it was something that Peter and Wanda often did when they were training.

Not that she could really train. There were any self-defense classes at the school that she could take. Not that any Lorna had seen anyway. There didn't seem to be an ounce of militancy about the school: only learning and exploration.

And yet, it was safe. Lorna didn't understand it, and she had the feeling that she was missing something somewhere. It couldn't be this easy to establish a haven for mutants or Magneto would have done it.

She straightened and began walking back to her room. She knew that she still had time to shower before she had to go down to breakfast. She'd been there for 380 days, she kept careful count, and most of the other students knew her name. Lorna wouldn't call any of them friends, but they knew who she was.

Sometimes she wondered if she should reach out more, say something to some of the students. She knew several who wouldn't mind being her friend. However, every time she tried, she thought of her brother and sister, and stopped.

Lorna climbed the stairs and went into her room. Unlike the other rooms in the hall, it had its own small bathroom. The Professor had explained to her that it had been meant for a member of faculty, but that they had vacated shortly before Lorna came. It had been the only room he'd had, and Lorna had moved in, grateful for the privacy.

She walked into the bathroom and looked at her reflection. Now that she was fifteen she had finally really started to get tall. Her baby fat was melting away, and her mother's delicate features were etched across her face.

She swallowed at that thought, but kept looking. Her hair matched her eyes now, even if she had no clue how exactly that had happened. She had considered asking the Professor for more details, but he was so busy so much. Lorna didn't want to wear him out. She was only there as a favor to Magneto after all.

It was another thing that puzzled her. How did two men, who seemed so different, know each other? Lorna supposed that there weren't many people fighting for mutant equality and people took allies wherever they could find them, but it was still strange.

The Professor didn't treat her like she was a favor though. He was unfailingly kind whenever she met him, always willing to talk to her about anything she wanted or needed to talk about. Every day she became a little more convinced that he was genuine. It was difficult to believe that, given everything, but it was an inevitable conclusion.

She washed her face, relishing in the feel of cold water. Her whole body felt tense and she took a shuddering breath. There were 700 days left until she turned seventeen. There were 700 days left until her siblings came back for her.

Lorna raised her head again. The more she looked, the more she realized that there was a little less of the girl she'd been when she'd left home three years ago reflected in her eyes. As time went by, she kept fading.

Of course, after what she'd been told when her siblings had left, maybe that was a good thing.

* * *

><p>"She wants to take mechanics this semester," Hank said.<p>

Charles didn't look up from his work. The school lunch menu was giving him a headache ever since they'd accepted five vegetarians. He'd thought it was bad when he'd had to deal with children who could only eat specific foods because of allergic reactions.

"There are twenty-six girls in this school and four female faculty. You are going to have to be more specific," replied Charles.

Hank sunk into the chair opposite Charles.

"You know who I mean," he said pointedly.

Charles sighed and leaned back in his chair. There really was only one student that they referred to as such. And to think, he thought that the most difficult decision he was going to have to make that afternoon was what the new vegetarian option was going to entail.

"Lorna?" Charles asked.

"Lorna," said Hank, "She turned in her course selection sheet this morning, and she wants to take mechanics as an elective this semester. Beginning level, but that's what she wants to take."

"Hm," Charles said.

He opened his desk and began to riffle through the files there. Charles pulled out 'Dane, Lorna.' They had thought it best to give her a different last name. It was a paper shield and probably wouldn't do any good if the authorities came, but it would throw them off for a while.

If they did come, then that would be another issue. It was one that Charles was more than prepared to deal with.

"Let's see here," Charles said, opening the folder.

He ran his finger down the classes that she had taken. She had been given positive marks from her teachers and warm comments about her work ethic. There had been some comments about her anti-social nature and tendency to retreat within herself, but he had expected that. The kind of wounds that had been inflicted on her when her siblings left were not the kind that healed overnight.

Her sharp intelligence was a bit of a surprise. Charles wondered how often Erik and her siblings had left her alone with nothing else to do except read. She had quickly shown that, although she hadn't been to school for the past two years, she was in no way handicapped.

It was another reason that made him sure that Erik would come back. He didn't have much experience with Lorna's siblings, but he knew that Magneto wasn't one to leave an asset like Lorna behind. He wasn't sure if Erik was fond of the girl, it was hard to tell much of anything when it came to Erik's potential sentimentality, but there was some level of attachment there.

No matter what the reason, Lorna was progressing well. With her penchant for studying over the summer he was sure that she would not only graduate on time, but perhaps earlier. Not that he would have time to see her graduate if what she had said about seventeen was true, but still.

"I think that she should be able to without a problem. She needs an elective, and I don't think she's interested in music," Charles said, "Besides, I know you wanted more students for that class. That will bring up the enrollment to five, wouldn't it?"

His friend blinked at him twice, but his expression didn't change.

"Charles, that is not the issue," Hank said.

Silence pushed down on the two of them. Charles gripped the folder a little harder.

"Let's be honest, cards on the table, whatever you call it," Hank said, "It comes down to me feeling...I mean...I'm not sure if I feel comfortable teaching a future Brotherhood member about the finer points of building and maintaining machines."

Charles put the folder away and folded his hands together.

"I thought you liked her," said Charles.

"Oh, she's likable alright, and that's what makes this conversation difficult," Hank said, looking at the floor, "I mean, I don't want to but, sometimes, when I see her…I see lives that I could save by not letting her get like Erik."

"And you think I don't?" asked Charles quietly.

Hank looked at the ground and adjusted his glasses nervously.

"Charles, what are we doing with her?" he asked, "I mean…I get the whole 'mutant in need' thing, but even so…"

"Again, I have thought about this," Charles said.

"I sense a but," said Hank.

Although it was probably inappropriate for the situation, Charles smiled slightly. Hank was getting to know him far too well.

"But," Charles said, "Every time I see her, the image of a potential Brotherhood member is overridden by that of a broken young girl trying to figure out what to do without the people she cared about the most in her life anymore."

He put his hand on the folder and tapped it.

"And as a teacher I can't see it being conducive to a good learning environment to single her out in such a fashion," said Charles, "She's a smart girl. She'll know why we're doing what we're doing sooner rather than later. That will erode her trust in us more than anything, and I need her to trust us. It's going to be a very difficult few years if she doesn't."

"Okay, I get that," said Hank, "But if we do this wrong we're potentially creating someone pretty dangerous."

"I've already done that Hank," Charles said.

His friend coughed and resumed his study of the floor. It had been years since Erik and Raven had gone off on their own, but there were still wounds that lurked beneath the surface. He hadn't seen Raven with Erik, but she hadn't come home either. Charles didn't know what that meant.

"This feels different," said Charles.

"Why?" Hank said.

"It just does," Charles said, "I can't explain it."

There was a long pause. He glanced back at the drawer filled with the files of his students.

"I don't think we can teach her that," Hank said.

"Not we Hank," said Charles, "You."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning you would be the one teaching her this," Charles said, "I think that we should show some degree of trust in her, but your reasons are right. What do you think you should do?"

His friend fell silent, thinking hard.

"They'll teach it to her anyway if I don't," said Hank after a time.

"So you're going to teach her?" Charles asked.

"Yes, but I think I'm going to channel the course into more mundane uses," Hank said, "It's just beginning mechanics: they don't get into the heady stuff until their senior year. I'll figure out what to do then. It won't harm anyone if she knows how to fix a toaster."

"I think that should work," said Charles.

Hank got up and put his hands in his pockets.

"But all I'm doing is delaying the problem," said Hank, "You know that."

"Yes," Charles said, "I do."


	21. Chapter 21

Peter had to admit, Emma had delivered. Ever since she had offered her partnership their funds had increased exponentially. Their hideouts became better, their equipment more modern. They had two computers now, which meant more ways to read the floppy disks that they captured. That was good. He liked lounging around houses that he once would have stolen from, liked driving cars that had some speed to them.

However, he could tell that things were changing. Astra was becoming increasingly angry, not that she had ever been easy to live with. Peter had decided to leave her alone all together. These days even a wrong look could set her off.

He'd thought he'd heard her crying in one of the rooms once, which had given him a kind of mean pleasure. It had also surprised him: he hadn't thought that she cared enough about anything enough to get upset. He'd later heard that she'd dislocated her shoulder in an unsuccessful mission. That had made him grin.

They'd also gotten a new face in the Brotherhood. Domino was three years older than them. She was also the first obvious mutant he'd ever seen, even though he knew that probably sounded a little harsh. Her skin was as white as a sheet of paper and a single black circle blotted one of her eyes. Magneto had apparently heard about her existence from Emma and gone down to recruit her.

She'd also brought something new to the Brotherhood: weapons. Emma had been generously funding them, which allowed them to buy the latest weapons from the market. He'd always loved the plastic explosives they used to destroy some of the vaults. Now they were practically rolling in it.

The guns were different. They were swimming in them too, as well as ammunition. On any one mission he could go out armed with a revolver, a machine gun, and a grenade launcher. Well, the grenade launcher was being reserved for special occasions. Not that he wanted to use it.

He wasn't complaining about the weapons they were getting. Not exactly. He was just getting uncomfortable with them. He'd never needed a gun before, and they just hadn't really factored into his thinking. Guns were things that he took from guards, things that he hid or destroyed. They weren't something he used.

He'd been trained in firearms in the past, but that had been different. Ink had taught him how to use some basic sidearms in case he ever had to take one from a guard or a soldier. Ink had been a soldier at one point, and he had been an excellent shot.

The semi-automatic handgun was a different matter entirely. He looked at it distastefully.

"Why do I have to learn to use one of these things?" he asked.

Domino smiled at him, her black lips revealing teeth as white as her skin. It was a weird effect, but she was kind of hot. Not on Emma's level, but a good runner-up certainly. Besides, she could shoot guns.

And she was there. That was a good plus.

"Because Magneto said it would be a good idea," she said, "Now, face forward. I don't think you're paying enough attention."

She grabbed the back of his head and jerked his head forward.

"Can't keep your hands off me, huh?" he asked.

She smirked.

"You need better pick-up lines," Domino said.

"Hey, who said it was a pick-up line?" he asked.

Still smirking she rolled her eyes. Peter wanted to say something else, but she pulled out the gun at her side. There were five loud bangs, and Peter saw that the resulting bullet holes formed an 'X' in the middle of the target.

After all the practicing he'd done, it was a little annoying to train alongside someone whose mutation was that they never missed.

"I'll go out with you when you can hit all of those marks," she said, "Not a second before."

Peter looked at his past targets, the sloppy patterns he'd created over the last hour.

"You know, you could've just said no," he said.

"I think this illustrates my point better," Domino said.

She threw one of her hands over her shoulder when she walked towards the door.

"Oh, and with smartass lines like that, get used to girls blowing you off," Domino said.

On her way out she passed by Wanda. Domino bumped her shoulder.

"Teach your brother how to talk to girls," she said, "He sucks ass at it."

"Oh, and I bet you're great at talking to guys!" he called after her.

"My husband thought so," she said.

Peter made a face.

"What?" he yelled.

"You heard me."

Domino rounded a corner and Wanda walked next to him.

"Geez, can you imagine being married at our age?" Peter said, "Crazy shit."

"No crazier than what we do every day," Wanda said.

She picked up a handgun from the table and aimed it. She cocked it back and forth before surrounding it with red light and making it vanish.

"Where'd you put it?" he asked.

"Somewhere," Wanda shrugged, "It doesn't matter."

She crossed her arms.

"Quicksilver, does it feel like this is all escalating a little bit?" she asked.

His own earlier thoughts flashed through his head. He put the semi-automatic down.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean, well, ever since Emma stepped into the picture, we've been better funded," Wanda said, "But I think that the weapons are a sign that she wants us to, I don't know, start a revolution or something."

"Duh, that's what we've always been trying to do," Peter said.

"Well, yes, but before we seemed a little less focused on killing people," said Wanda, "I mean, four years ago when we first came here, did you think that we would be trained like this?"

"I didn't think a lot of things four years ago," Peter said, "Not important."

His sister sighed and hopped up on the countertop. She began swinging her feet absently. Peter noted that she was still wearing her favorite red boots. She hadn't grown out of them since they had joined the Brotherhood and, for all of their impracticality, she really seemed to love them.

She'd been so easy to please when he'd gotten her those. Ever since they'd left Lorna behind she had gone through these really weird gloomy periods. They never lasted long, but they were starting to get annoying.

"When was the last time we had fun?" asked Wanda.

"Don't know what you mean," Peter said, "I have fun all the time."

"Real fun," snapped Wanda.

"Again, I do that all the time."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Fun that doesn't involve hurting people," said Wanda.

"You make me sound like a masochist," Peter said.

Wanda wrinkled her nose.

"Okay, so maybe I think it's funny when some asshole falls flat on his face," he said, "That's not masochism. Not really."

"Whatever you call it," Wanda mumbled, "I just...when was the last time we had fun that was meant to be fun?"

Peter frowned. He knew what his sister was asking, and he didn't like answering.

"I think it was when we went to that fair with Lorna," he said.

Wanda nodded and looked down.

"Quicksilver, when we left her-" she said.

"We didn't leave her," Peter said, "We're coming back for her, aren't we?"

"Yes, we are," said Wanda, "I mean, I just think that we might have left behind having a life outside of missions."

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Scarlet, let's get one thing straight," he said, "Do you regret leaving Lorna behind?"

"Don't be stupid," Wanda said, "She couldn't stay with us: especially not with what we're doing now."

"So, you're saying the reason that we left her behind was the reason why we should have her with us?" asked Peter.

Wanda stopped, thinking back over her words.

"That wasn't what I meant," she said.

"It sounded an awful lot like it was," said Peter, "I mean, come on. Why are we even talking about this?"

"Just thinking," Wanda mumbled.

"It's not like I don't think about her," Peter said, "Yeah, she's turning sixteen in a week, but, come on."

His sister squinted her eyes. She had a really odd habit of doing that when she was perplexed about something.

"It's March," she said.

"Yeah, and her birthday is in March," Peter said.

"Don't tell her that," said Wanda, "I think she was always under the impression that her birthday was in April."

He made a face and began counting his fingers.

"Oh, right," he said.

"She'd be pissed if she knew you said that," Wanda said.

"Come on, Lorna never gets pissed," said Peter.

"True," Wanda said.

She sighed and clasped her hands together.

"I just...sometimes I feel like we might be a little too focused," she said.

"If I were more focused, then I would be able to hit all those damn bullet marks," Peter said.

He tapped the semi-automatic.

"Do I really have no idea how to talk to girls?" he asked.

"Not a clue," said Wanda.

"If anything, I should have an advantage," Peter said, "I grew up with two girls."

"That doesn't make you an automatic expert," sighed Wanda.

Peter crossed his arms irritably.

"Yeah, well when the other guys were chasing girls I was stealing stuff for my sisters," he said, "And myself of course. And then I signed up to join a revolution, so I never really had time to go and be flirty-flirty."

"Not to mention you thought your charm and good looks would automatically have all the girls run to you," Wanda said.

"Of course," Peter said.

As soon as Wanda began grinning he realized just what it was that he'd said.

"I mean, um, not that-" he said.

"Could you be any more conceited?" asked Wanda, "Even though it's a terrible reflection on me, you are not as good-looking as you think you are. And, whether you realize it or not, I can see that smartassery in your eyes."

She tapped the middle of his forehead. He swatted her hand away.

"Like you've had so much experience with guys," Peter said.

"Well, I had two boyfriends before we joined up with the Brotherhood," she said, "Then there were those assholes at the diner, Toad, who never seems to take a hint, and there are these complete weirdos I meet on my missions-"

"Woah, there were assholes at the diner?" Peter asked.

"Of course," said Wanda, "Don't worry: just comments. Nothing a good wad of mucus in their food couldn't fix. Same thing for the weirdos on my missions. Of course, I'm stealing their military secrets at the same time, so I don't worry about it too much."

She jumped off the counter.

"Anyway, we're talking about you, not me," Wanda said, "Tone down that smartassery and then you might have a chance. Not with Domino: she knows too much about you. And not with Emma either."

"I'm not interested in Emma," Peter said.

She snorted and punched him in the shoulder. He rubbed his arm. Her punches had gotten significantly more powerful in the last few years.

"That hurt," he said.

"I meant it to," said Wanda, "And don't lie to me. You were practically drooling over her when we walked into the room."

"Hey, there's a difference between thinking a girl is hot and actually wanting to have her that close to you," Peter said, "In reality...Emma's kind of crazy. And she kinda freaks me out."

"Good," Wanda said.

She paused, and then lowered her voice.

"I'm not sure if we can trust her," she said.

"Why's that?" Peter asked.

Wanda shrugged, but she looked uncomfortable.

"I'm not sure," she said, "Just a feeling I suppose."

She shrugged again, her gaze on the targets.

"Just a feeling," Wanda repeated.


	22. Chapter 22

"Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Peter looked up from his comic book. Magneto was standing in the doorway, his arms folded. He nodded quickly and then tossed the comic over his shoulder. It was all just propaganda anyway, and he was getting a little tired of the 'witty' puns.

"Sure, what's up?" he said.

Magneto's eyes slid to the room next to them.

"In private," he said.

He nodded again and hoisted himself up. Peter shoved his hands in his pockets and walked after Magneto, cracking his neck as he did so. He would have never dared do this a few years ago, but he felt a little more comfortable around Magneto now.

Not that he wasn't still intimidated from time to time, but still.

"So, what are we gonna talk about?"

Magneto shut the door. When he did Peter realized that Wanda was in there too. He jumped at that: he hadn't expected her.

"Woah," he said, "What're you doing here?"

"Same thing as you I guess," she said.

"Please, both of you," Magneto said.

Peter shot a wondering look at Wanda. She gave him a look in return, but she didn't seem as alarmed as he did. Why did Magneto need both of them?

"I need to talk about Emma Frost," he said.

Well, there could be that. Peter scratched the back of his neck. He had the feeling that this was going to be a complicated conversation.

"In your opinion," Magneto said, "Can we trust her?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

He could feel panic rising in him, along with the mean satisfaction that he'd been asked first. At the same time, he'd never been asked his opinion on something like this before. Peter forced himself to calm down a little bit. He knew how to do this. He knew he could.

"I trust her a little bit," he said.

"How much is 'a little bit?'" Magneto asked.

"About as far as I can throw her," Peter said.

Magneto was still giving him that same, even look, and Peter cleared his throat. He wanted details.

"I mean, I think that she'll come through on her end of the bargain," he said, "I think she'll fund us, and I think she'd be happy if we achieved our goals."

"But?" Magneto said.

"But I think she wants something different from what we want," Peter continued, feeling a little better as time went on, "She didn't join us, not cause she can't, but I think she doesn't like that level of physical danger."

Magneto nodded and, once again, Peter felt emboldened.

"But just…the more I think about it, the more I get the feeling she wants something out of us," he said, "And not what she said she wants. Not sure what it is, but I think it's something else."

Magneto titled his head towards Wanda.

"And your opinion?" he asked.

"Same as my brother's, but with one caveat," Wanda said, "I think she's screwed up in the head."

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

She glanced at Peter and swallowed.

"Just...she seems empty," said Wanda, "If she lost half of what she said she did, in the way she did, that would mess anyone up. I think it made her more vicious, a and I don't know if I feel entirely comfortable with her involved."

Magneto nodded again before clapping a hand on Peter's shoulder.

"You and your sister have come a long way," he said, "I would have expected nothing less from the two of you."

Peter grinned at Wanda, but she kept her hands folded in front of her, listening.

"There's something that I need the two of you to do, and I want neither of you to tell the others," Magneto said.

"What's going on?" Wanda asked.

Magneto smiled slightly and then removed his hand.

"Emma has a friend she wants to join up with us," he said, "Now, friend and spy can so often mean the same thing."

"And in this case you think they do mean the same thing," said Peter slowly.

"Yes, of course I do," Magneto said, "From what I remember of Emma's mother, she was the type to lie, cheat and steal as long as she got her way. She died as a martyr to our cause, which does endear me to her memory somewhat, but it does not make me trust her daughter."

He made an impatient gesture with his hand.

"I'm not about to risk the safety of our Brotherhood by displaying a profusion of trust," he said, "But losing Emma's funding at this point would be damaging. So I need someone to keep an eye on our latest arrival."

"Like a babysitter?" Peter said, dismayed.

Magneto sighed and shook his head.

"I know, it does sound rather menial," he said, "But I don't think that anyone would suspect the two of you simply because you are our youngest."

Peter made a face. He was nearly twenty-two for crying out loud.

"Again, I know," Magneto said, "Anyone who's been in the Brotherhood for more than two months will know that you certainly are the most devious members on the team."

"Uh…thanks?" Peter said.

Magneto laughed.

"It was meant as a compliment," he said.

"Oh, right," Peter said.

Still smiling Magneto cocked his head.

"I know that you two have sacrificed more than most for our cause," he said, "And I am sorry for that. You know my reasons for..."

He sighed.

"Never mind," he said, "I know that the two of you understood, and I know that the two of you know how to make difficult decisions in life. It's why I know I could trust you. Can you both do this for me?"

He held out his hand. Peter looked at it, feeling something like gratitude swelling inside of him. He could see the same expression in Wanda's eyes. She gave a brief nod, not only in agreement, but in acknowledgement. The last few years had been difficult, but at least that part was going to end soon.

There were only a few more months until Lorna turned seventeen.

"Yeah, of course," Peter said, "Duh, obviously."

He took Magneto's hand, feeling his leader's crushing grip encompass his hand.

"I knew I could count on you," he said.

* * *

><p>"Lorna, do ya have a moment?"<p>

Lorna bit her lip and looked at her teacher. Mr. Guthrie was giving her an open, friendly look as she gathered her books. She put them back down on the table, feeling nervous. It had been years since a teacher had asked that.

"Of course," she said.

Guthrie grinned as the last of the students filed out of the classroom. Lorna began chewing on her lip a little.

"Ah read ya essay on _The Old Man an The Sea,_" he said.

"Oh?" Lorna asked.

She felt a little nervous, she hadn't been so certain about that particular essay, but Guthrie just laughed. He had a strange laugh, but a very happy one. She'd never met anyone that had a Southern accent before Guthrie.

Lorna wondered if all Southern people spoke like that.

"Nah, nah, ya did a good job," he said, "Real good actually. Ya ever thought about writin speeches?"

"No, no I haven't," Lorna said.

Guthrie nodded, but he didn't look deterred.

"Ah think ya'd be pretty good," Guthrie declared, "Ah don't have many students that can write that natural. Specially not about Hemmingway."

"He's kind of an odd one, isn't he?" she asked.

"Nah," said Guthrie, "Just kinda lost ah think. Kinda a jerk if ya look at his life, but ah think he was tryin ta find somethin."

"What?" she asked.

"Ah don't know," Guthrie said, "Just somethin. Maybe that's why he was always so darn sad. Didn't know what he was looking for."

There was a pause, and Lorna looked out the window. She had hoped to get some reading done outside before it got dark, and if she hurried she could still do it. Besides, she always got nervous when people wanted to talk about emotional theories concerning actors and writers.

There were too many words when they did.

"Well, thank you," said Lorna, "I'll think about it."

She made a move for her books, but Guthrie shook his head.

"Ah'm almost done," he said, "Just one more thing."

Lorna frowned. She had no idea what else they had to talk about.

"Ah was looking at ya credits with Dr. McCoy the other day," he said, "An ah realized that, if ya study this summer too, ya could actually graduate high school when ya turn seventeen. Maybe a little earlier."

She smiled. She had hoped that she could finish before that age. There seemed to be so little time, and yet so much of it. If nothing else she had hoped to get finish high school before her siblings saw her again. Maybe it would impress them.

"An ah was wonderin what ya were plannin ta do for college," he said.

Lorna felt herself freeze. Her heart cried out in two voices, each voice screaming a different message to her.

"Now, our college program is still in its infancy," Guthrie said, "An ya'd only have bout five classmates, but ya could get ya degree that way."

"I um, I hadn't really thought about that," said Lorna.

"Well, if ya don't wanna, then ya can go to another institute," Guthrie continued, "Ah mean, it doesn't look bad for em ta see a private school on ya resume."

"I can imagine," said Lorna.

She looked down at her desk.

"I'm...I don't think I'm going to go to college," she confessed.

"Why not? Lorna, ya a shoe-in if ah ever saw one."

She swallowed.

"Is it money?" asked Guthrie, his voice knowledgeable, "Well, we can look at scholarships kinda early and-"

"No, it's uh, family stuff," Lorna said.

It was a half-truth, but her entire life was a half-truth now.

"Aha. Well, ah know a little bit bout that," Guthrie said, "Ah got siblings comin outta my ears, an my parents wanted me ta stay at home an help out. Get a local job, ya know."

"But you left?" asked Lorna, looking up at him.

"Looks like," Guthrie said.

"And they weren't upset?" asked Lorna.

Guthrie shook his head.

"Nah," he said, "In the end, they said they didn't wanna stop me from followin what my heart was telling me ta do."

He leaned down, oblivious to the fact that Lorna felt as though her own heart was going to burst.

"An ah got a baby sister who needs ta go ta a good secondary school," he said, "Helps ta know a teacher, ya know?"

Guthrie continued to look at her, the smile fading slightly as the silence stretched on. Lorna let out a harsh breath and gathered up her books.

"It's not the same with me," Lorna said.

"Why not?"

"It just isn't," Lorna mumbled, "Thanks for everything, but...I need to get going."

She clutched her books to her chest and hurried out of the classroom. Tears stung her eyes, but she'd meant what she said to Guthrie. It wasn't the same for her. There were too many conflicting emotions in her then, emotions that had been churning and bubbling ever since Wanda and Peter had left her at that school.

Lorna took the steps to her room two at a time. It was going to bubble over at some point. Lorna hoped that she could keep it in check until she was a little older. More specifically, she wanted to keep it in check until she was seventeen.


	23. Chapter 23

Emma's friend was tall and dark, his eyebrows heavy over eyes that were the color of a storm that was brewing. Wanda had always thought that that was just an expression from one of Lorna's silly little books, but Jason Wryngarde really did have eyes like that.

They were also eyes that were fixed on her for an uncomfortable amount of the day. She hated the way he seemed to watch the way she walked. He didn't ever seem to just watch her like Toad did, which was uncomfortable enough. No, he had to watch the way she did things.

Granted, it was easier to keep an eye on him this way. It didn't mean she had to like it, and it didn't mean that Peter had to like it either. He had tolerated Toad because, in his own way, Toad was harmless enough. Annoying, yes. Dangerous, no.

There was something about Jason that set Wanda on edge, although she couldn't quite place it. Even if Magneto hadn't told her to keep an eye on him she would have felt uneasy around him. There was just something.

So, Wanda did something that she had quit doing a long time ago: she took out her tarot cards. She quickly drew The Fool and The High Priestess, which was always a good sign. It was also a good sign that she didn't draw the Queen of Pentacles. It meant that her readings were readjusting.

Then she pulled The Magician. Her eyes narrowed. She had the feeling that was Jason. The person on her card even looked a little bit like him. Maybe she was imagining it, but either way it was too much of a coincidence.

The next card she pulled out was The Hanging Man. She was starting to hate that card, especially because it always seemed so ambiguous. Wanda had quit doing readings because she kept pulling it out. She hadn't been able to go one reading since the one she'd done after Peter had come home with blood on his clothes without it. They had already made their decision, and now it just messed things up.

Still, she kept going. She had pulled The Magician, and with that came the possibility that she was going to get something new, or at least some sort of useful information. Wanda wasn't willing to bet money on it, but still.

That was when she drew Death. She stared at it for a few minutes, unwilling to believe what she was seeing. After a few seconds she calmed herself down, telling herself that the card wasn't inverted, that the Death card didn't necessarily mean death. There were other meanings, meanings that meant change.

Then again, what did it matter? Wanda repeated this to herself three or for times before shuffling all of the cards back into her deck. Tarot card readings were childish anyway.

"What are you doing?"

She turned. Jason was standing behind her, one eyebrow raised questioningly. Wanda felt irritated: how had he managed to get behind her that quietly? She scowled at him slightly and began shuffling the cards.

"Nothing important," she said.

"You seemed very focused," he said.

Wanda paused in mid-shuffle.

"How long have you been watching me?" she asked, her voice even.

"Only a few minutes," he said, "I didn't want to interrupt."

She shoved her cards back into their beat-up box.

"You are really, really creepy," she said.

Wanda got up, brushing imaginary lint off her pants. She was getting ready to head to the kitchen, pretend to do something while making sure that Jason wasn't doing anything too suspicious, when he spoke again.

"You were doing a tarot reading, weren't you?" he asked.

"Again, none of your business," said Wanda.

Jason smirked, and that expression irritated her even more than his strange eyebrow raise.

"Where exactly do you come from?" he asked, "I can detect no accent on you, but there are traces of another nationality."

"Polish," Wanda said tartly, "My mother and grandparents on my father's side immigrated."

"Hm," he said, "Did your mother used to live near the German border?"

She frowned at him. The question was oddly specific, but it was also a little more accurate than she would have preferred.

"I don't know," she said.

"I think you do," said Jason, "And I think she did."

"So what if she did?" asked Wanda, "My father was born in Ohio. His parents got out before the war began. Is that particularly important?"

"No, I don't think so," Jason said.

"Then why the hell was the other stuff?" asked Wanda.

"I am simply making polite conversation," said Jason, "My, sometimes I think the only civil ones are your brother and Domino."

"Don't get your hopes up on getting a kind word from Astra," Wanda said, "She's always been stuck-up, and she's got a tongue like a knife on her. If you think you've seen her annoyed, you haven't even scratched the surface yet."

She thought about her words, and then decided to add some more on the end of that.

"And don't think you're weaseling your way into my life either," she said.

A small voice whispered that she shouldn't try to push away the person she was supposed to be watching. However, if Peter got to play good cop, then she got to play bad cop. Anything to put a few feet of distance between her and him.

He didn't seem angry or annoyed though, just amused. It was like he could see some joke that she couldn't and found it hilarious. It made her hate him more, and she wondered just how she could despise someone this thoroughly.

"Well well, consider me thoroughly chastened," he said, "But I really believe that we should be friends."

"Friends?" Wanda repeated.

His smirk widened, and she recoiled, disgusted.

"What are you, like twelve years older than me?" Wanda asked.

"Perhaps five," said Jason, "You've never told me your age."

"And I'm not going to start now," Wanda said.

She didn't want him to have any more personal details than she already had.

"Come now. Surely you can see the advantages to such a...partnership," he said.

"I'm guessing that's why you're 'partners' with Emma?" she asked.

He laughed, the sound smooth and baritone.

"Don't be foolish," he said, "She's business. But, with such similar powers, it really seems like see should be doing more together."

"Similar?" she scoffed.

Wanda tossed her head back and burst out laughing. She'd seen that his power was like illusions, so comparing it to hers was ridiculous. If his victims had any presence of mind they might understand just what it was that was happening to them. Humans were stupid though.

When she stopped to wipe her eyes she saw his amusement slip a little.

"Jason, don't be a jackass. Our powers are nothing alike," she said.

She held out her hand, the tarot cards in her palm. It was a cheap trick, but the cards had worn out their usefulness if they were going to keep giving her things like The Hanging Man. She let the red light grow, and then she set them on fire.

The fire burned in the palm of her hand, turning the cards to ashes. Wanda watched the fire burn out and then made the red light disappear. She looked at Jason and, for the first time since she had seen him, she smiled.

"This is real," she said, "Everything you make is fake. It's a cool power, to be sure, but it's nothing like mine, and it certainly doesn't impress me."

Jason's scowl intensified.

"And you know it," Wanda said.

Wanda blew on the ashes, letting them scatter in the air, a silent reminder. Something flashed in his eyes, and Wanda stared back. She didn't know what he would do if he was pushed to the edge, and she really didn't want to find out either. The ashes remained there between them, a testament to her superior skill and power.

Something came and smoothed over his features, settling into an oily smile.

"Very well," he said.

She watched him as he turned around and left the room. Wanda figured that he'd go to his room to brood for a bit.

"He really is bad news. I think you should know that."

She whipped around. Toad was standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"What is it with people sneaking around today?" she demanded.

Toad shrugged, his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"I wasn't trying to sneak, and I wasn't trying to eavesdrop," he said, "But you guys were in the living room and um, yeah. Right."

He cleared his throat.

"I just wanted to say that I think he's trouble," said Toad.

Wanda sighed. Men.

"That's sweet and all, but I can take care of myself," she said.

"I know," Toad said, "It's just that..."

He looked at the door that Jason had just walked out of.

"Emma's kinda sketchy, and so's he," said Toad, "I know the way that he looks at you."

She rubbed her temples.

"Toad, look, maybe this has gone on long enough-" she began.

"-you don't like me, don't see me that way, think I'm a decent enough teammate, but not someone you want to date," Toad said, "The subtext is that I never was, you never even liked me a little bit like that even before we started being on the same team together. I know."

Wanda looked at him in surprise. Toad shrugged, his expression still sheepish.

"About three years ago your little sister took me aside," he said, "She um, she said she felt kind a sorry for me, but told me in the politest terms she could that she knew you weren't interested. I figured out the rest from there. It's not like you ever gave me any reason to hope or anything."

She continued to stare at him. Wanda wanted to say something good, something that would make what he said seem a little less crushing. All she could get out though was:

"Lorna told you that?"

It felt like a slap in the face to know that her little sister had, very quietly and without telling anyone, taken care of something like this.

"I know, right?" asked Toad, "She seems like such a little bit, and then she goes and does stuff like that. Makes you wonder what else she's got going on in her head."

It wasn't something Wanda wanted to think about.

"Don't be mad at her though," Toad said, "She was trying to help us both out I think. I mean, why'd you want someone hanging around you that you don't even like a little bit?"

"I'm not mad," said Wanda, "But Toad, I-"

"You were trying to be polite and give me hints, ones that I never really picked up on," he said, "I get it Wanda."

The casual slip of her real name made Wanda wince, but she decided not to call him out on it. This conversation was already weird enough as it was.

"But...if that happened all those years ago-" Wanda asked.

"Why did I still give ya all those looks?" he asked, "Yeah, I tried to stop, but I kinda had some difficulty with that. I mean, I still like you. I just get that you don't."

Toad nodded towards the door again.

"I'd never hurt you though, and I'd prefer not seeing you hurt," he said, "I don't know if I can say the same about Jason, and he's not even a real Brotherhood member. I don't think this will be like it was with Astra where you guys can hate each other off the field but not have it affect your performance. He's the type of guy we'd have to put down in Nam."

He gave her a half smile.

"So watch your back, okay?" he asked.

"I will," Wanda said.

Toad's smile widened.

"Good," he said, "Take care of yourself Wanda."

She watched him as he left the room, the final ashes of the tarot cards settling on the floor.


	24. Chapter 24

"Hal-!"

Peter laughed as he zipped past the guards. The looks on their faces were always priceless whenever he did that. He grabbed their handcuffs from their belts and quickly cuffed their hands together. With his spare hand he reached down and tied their laces together, making the knots as complicated as possible. The fall was always much more entertaining that way.

The next second they found themselves crawling around on the floor, wondering what the hell had just happened. Peter chortled to himself. After watching for a few seconds he gave them a quick kick to the head, knocking them out.

"Night night," he said.

Peter shoved his hands in his pockets.

"You can come out now," he said.

He looked over his shoulder at Jason. As always, he was brooding. He'd never seen someone walk broodily before. Peter wondered just why he was so damn upset all the time. Wouldn't kill him to smile every now and then.

"Coming?" he asked.

Jason sighed and shook his head as he walked past the downed guards.

"That was childish," he said.

"But fun," said Peter, "Try having fun. You might like it, ya know?"

Jason gave him an amused grin, almost as though pitying Peter's stupidity. Peter grinned back, inwardly planning the day when he would kick Jason's teeth in. Wanda had been allowed to play good cop since the guy was apparently something of a creep. She'd talked to him about what had happened a few days ago, and he longed to do something about it.

For now though, now he had to play dumb. They would balance each other out, especially since Peter didn't think Jason was the kind of guy who'd take no very well. He didn't see him trying to murder his sister, but he didn't see any good coming out of it either.

"So, coming or not?" he asked.

"Coming, always coming," Jason said.

Peter zipped towards the armored door and punched in the key code they'd gotten a week earlier. They were in a military installation, but this time they weren't going to be stealing any secrets. They were currently in one of the radio towers, something the military probably wasn't expecting.

He tapped the floppy disk in his pocket and hummed. In two more minutes the entirety of New England was about to get their evening newscast interrupted. He supposed it would've been easier to issue a threat via a newscast, just give them the tape and tell the anchor what it was, but hijacking the airwaves was probably more intimidating.

The idea of doing their own video seemed really, really cool to Peter. For years they had been attacking the government without getting their side of the story out. All that they had done was react to things and fight the government. That wasn't bad, but they didn't have many members now.

It had been a while since they had addressed the populace. It was ridiculous, given how it had been Magneto's address in front of the White House that had inspired him and Toad in the first place. It had been too many years since they'd gotten a speech like that.

He was glad that, in their own way they were fighting back against some of the things news channels were saying. The last straw was that one had said Magneto was dead, but Peter had his own personal bones to pick with some of the channels. One had said he and Wanda were a couple.

Peter had wanted to throw up everywhere after hearing that, and Wanda had looked rather green herself. What the hell were they even basing that on, that they always showed up together? Couldn't they tell that they were twins? That wasn't just gross, that was lazy reporting.

The door opened. Peter got ready to beat up the techies, but Jason waved his hand dismissively. The three men fell to the floor writhing, their hands swatting at something Peter couldn't see.

As Peter walked around them, one of them began clutching at his face.

"So, what'd you do to them?" he asked.

"You probably wouldn't want to know," Jason said.

Peter glanced at the men again.

"Whatever," he said.

He sat down in front of one of the machines and began tapping away. Jason stood beside him, turning the tape they had been given between his hands. They had managed to snag it from a news van.

"So, we're moving into propaganda now, aren't we?" Jason asked.

It was irritating how quickly he had considered himself to be one of them. Peter stopped tapping and inserted the floppy disk into the computer. Emma had some good hackers working for her, and the code would reroute some of the power.

"Looks like," Peter said.

"How long did it take Magneto to figure out how to use the camcorder?" asked Jason.

Man, and he'd thought that he never shut up.

"Dunno," Peter said, "I'm not a film crew."

"Considering this little film, you might have to learn these skills soon," warned Jason.

"I'll get to it," Peter said, "Sooner or later."

He tapped a few more keys and then held out his hand.

"Tape," he said.

"You should probably learn it sooner," Jason said.

Peter didn't answer, but just popped the tape into the VCR. It started whirring and Peter splayed his hand out, leaning back in the his foot he flicked another switch, and one of the TVs turned on. Static roared across the screen, but it soon fixed on the image of Magneto.

"Presto," he said.

Jason sighed.

"Are we really going to watch it?" he asked, "We've already seen it."

"Duh," Peter said.

He put his hand behind his head and leaned back further.

"I wouldn't want to miss the fun," he said.

* * *

><p>Lorna was just getting in from her evening run when she walked by the living room. She often went on runs at night. It gave her more time to be alone with her thoughts. She seemed to need a lot of it these days.<p>

She'd almost made it to the staircase when she heard a familiar voice.

"-brothers and sisters, I suppose that it's time to tell you that, like many 'inconveniences' before me, reports of my death were greatly exaggerated."

Lorna felt her heart leap into her throat. She walked into the next room, each motion feeling like it belonged to someone else. Several of the older students were seated in the living room. Several looked surprised, and quite a few looked rather disturbed.

The youngest was a girl of about eight, her long white hair looking like a cape or blanket wrapping her up. Papers were scattered all around her, and Lorna wondered what homework she had been working on when this had started. She watched the little girl move back and clutch her book closer at the sound of Magneto's voice.

"Currently, I'm speaking to you all through a military channel. I have only minutes left before I can return you to the world that the media would have you believe exists, but I simply wanted you to know that, in the years since my most public appearance, nothing has changed."

Lorna looked back up at the screen. The man who had spent hours teaching her how to hone her powers stared back at her. Lorna began chewing on her lip.

"I felt that it was necessary to inform you that there are currently five facilities scattered around the United States that have looked into 'augmenting' mutants," Magneto continued, "Data is being gathered on every reported mutant, and statistics are being created. But you might have noticed that those statistics aren't being published."

One of the students next to Lorna crossed their arms, but as Lorna's eyes flickered around the room, she could only see anxiety reflected in their expressions. The little girl on the rug had pulled her legs up to her chest.

"You might be asking yourself why, but we all know the answer to that question," he said, "The government does not want those statistics published, not until they can come to your house in the middle of the night and take you away."

There was a clacking noise by the door. She knew that the Professor was there, but she didn't dare turn and look at him. He was the only one who knew who she was, that she knew the man on the TV. He was the only one there who knew her siblings had probably played a role in getting this on air.

"The alternative?" Magneto said, "Quite simply, we have to eliminate them before they eliminate us."

She heard a soft breath being drawn all around her. At first Lorna thought it was fear of what he had suggested lay in store for them, but as she continued to look around the room, she knew that wasn't the case for most of the other students.

They were scared of Magneto. It wasn't an outcome she had predicted, and it made something that she had fought long and hard to keep buried.

* * *

><p>Charles considered turning the TV off. It would be easy enough. His students didn't need to see the hate and the fear that Erik was spreading, the justification that Erik was giving their opponents in the government.<p>

He didn't need to see it either. He didn't need to see just how much more difficult his old friend was making his job. However, he stayed where he was and watched, simply because he had to. Charles was sick of taking the easy way out, and Logan had showed him that doing so was often counterproductive.

The only one he wasn't certain about was Lorna. She was standing, like a statue, watching the TV. Her lip was red from where she had been chewing it, and he'd thought she'd been looking around the room at one point, but she was still now.

"Currently, the Brotherhood is still fighting," Magneto said, "But the real question is whether or not you will allow yourself to be rolled over. One way or another, the fools in Washington are about to see just what happens when you push people to the edge."

Charles felt his heart leap into his throat. What on earth was Erik planning?

"A new world is dawning," Magneto said, "We simply need to sweep away the old."

Static took over the TV. Ororo, seated with her books and papers, smothered a whimper, and the students began looking at each other.

"Never become like that," Charles said.

Everyone turned to look at him, everyone except Lorna.

"You all know better," he said, "You need to know that this isn't something that you can become. Don't let your hatred and anger take control of you, dictate who you are. You are more than that fear, more than that pain. You are all so much more than that."

There were a few scattered nods and more than one worried look at the TV.

"Now, off to bed, all of you," said Charles, "It's almost lights out."

The students shuffled off. Ororo gathered up her books and scampered away, no doubt to talk to her friends about what she had seen. The only one who stayed was Lorna. She hadn't so much as twitched.

He wheeled up to her, but her head slowly turned to him. He had expected to see that blankness she so often assumed in order to hide her feelings, but instead he saw a wealth of fear. It was so powerful that he could only stare at her, speechless.

In that moment, he realized that Lorna was just as scared as his other students. She knew exactly what the Brotherhood was, what it did, what her beloved brother and sister did. The girl in front of him held no illusions about the life that lay in front of her.

Feeling helpless, Charles swallowed once before holding out his hand. She gripped it so tightly that he wondered if it would break. It didn't matter. Even if it did, it still wouldn't be as painful as what the girl in front of him must be going through.


	25. Chapter 25

Wanda hadn't been sure just what it was Magneto had meant when he said that everyone in Washington would be taught a lesson. He didn't share his plans with her too much. Peter probably didn't either. For all his hero worship of the man, Wanda figured that Magneto still only told Peter and the rest of them less than half of what went on in his head.

It was probably better that way. For all that Wanda admired the man, she didn't really want to know all his thoughts. When she had thought about his oratory over the airways, she figured that he probably meant blood was going to be spilt.

It was why she was relieved that they were only burning down the records storehouse. They had taken careful steps to make sure that there was no loss of life. It wouldn't do to give the media any statistics to report. That's what Astra had said, but Wanda was just happy that they weren't burning anyone to death.

She smiled as she dosed a cabinet with gasoline. Wanda sincerely hoped that they had back-up records somewhere. It might have been bad form to wish good luck to her enemies, but everything was about to go up in flames. It would certainly save them some trouble later if they had bothered to be careful.

Wanda tossed the empty can aside and strolled through the halls, her hands swinging absently by her side. The building was empty, and they had managed to drag all of the guards out a few hours later. Astra was currently keeping an eye on them, and, knowing her, probably kicking them around some too.

Her brother was off on another mission with Toad. He'd told her about blowing something up, but Wanda wasn't sure that she believed him. Sure, they had the firepower to blow things up now, but just because they could do something didn't mean that they were going to. It was more likely they were going to set something on fire.

Magneto was at a third location, declining help. She knew that, since he'd assigned Jason to her and Peter, he wouldn't be going with him. He hadn't wanted to take Astra along with him, and she couldn't blame him. Wanda wished that he would have taken Peter though. It just felt better to go in twos.

As far as she knew, the plan was to destroy government property every night, starting with three buildings. The targets would escalate over the next few days, terminating in something bigger every night. It was meant to send a message, and a big one.

She turned a corner and heard movement in one of the rooms. The noise startled her, but she quickly pressed herself against the wall. She didn't think that anyone had seen her, but she had to be careful. Wanda was more powerful than any five security guards put together, but it someone got a lucky shot in then she would still be dead.

Making her movements careful, Wanda peeked around the corner. Jason was in one of the rooms, leaning over a filing cabinet. She was about to call out to him, tell him to stop fooling around, when he pulled a few files out of the cabinet.

Her eyes narrowed and she stayed where she was. She knew for a fact that Magnet wasn't interested in any of the files in the department. If he'd wanted information he would have told her, or he would have sent more people. He certainly wouldn't have ordered the building burned down if it was producing interesting data.

She withdrew from her position and crept back a few pace. Wanda squared her shoulders and began walking as loudly down the hallway as she could, making sure that her heels clicked no the floor.

"Mastermind!" she called.

His mission name sounded silly, but given that hers was three words long, she figured that she could let this one slide. At least he didn't go by it all the time. No matter what, he had to know that she was coming. It would disrupt too much if he didn't.

She saw him come out of the room and Wanda yawned.

"Are you done?" she asked.

"Quite," he said.

Jason looked around and shrugged.

"I suppose it's time to leave," he said.

"The place smells like the inside of a car, so yeah," Wanda said, "I'd say that it's time to go."

He fell into step beside her. Wanda preferred it that way, since it meant that she could keep an eye on him when he did that. She preferred when he went in front of her, there was more distance, but beside wasn't too bad.

"You know, we never did finish that conversation about where you hailed from," Jason said.

"I told you," sighed Wanda, "And I don't know why you care."

"Origins are very important," he said, "Did your parents never teach you that?"

"Becoming The Scarlet Witch was all about leaving my origins behind," snapped Wanda, "And I suspect you had similar motives when you joined the Hellfire Club."

Jason chortled.

"Yes, I suppose you could say that," he said, "But you're also getting rather closer to your origins, in your own way."

"What does that mean?" demanded Wanda.

"Nothing," he said, "Or everything."

"Is it just a hobby, being cryptic?" snapped Wanda.

"Not a hobby: a talent," Jason said, "I've always been rather good at it."

She rolled her eyes and walked outside. Astra was waiting impatiently. Wanda noticed that her face seemed thinner in the harsh streetlights, the circles under her eyes more pronounced. The Brotherhood worked irregular hours, but just how much sleep was she getting? Even Wanda wondered if she should say something to someone.

Astra kicked a guard next to her. Wanda gave them a quick glance. They were a little worse for wear, but nothing major.

"Are you two done yet?" Astra demanded.

"No, we just decided to walk out here," said Wanda.

She crossed her arms.

"Can we lit it up yet?" she asked.

"Just as soon as we get the signal," Astra said.

Wanda gazed out at the horizon. She didn't have to wait too long. The sky suddenly flared orange in the distance, joined by another flare after a handful of minutes. Astra smiled to herself and walked over to the building. Wanda turned her head to watch as she struck a few matches.

The building only smirked at first, but it quickly caught. They had practically painted it with gasoline. She watched it burn, her eyes filling with the sight of fire and her mind with questions about the papers Jason had stolen.

* * *

><p>"Should we say something to the students?" asked Hank.<p>

Charles didn't respond, not at first. He just kept looking out the window. Unlike most of his students, he watched the early morning news. Three archive buildings outside of D.C. had burnt to the ground. The Brotherhood had claimed responsibility shortly afterwards.

He rubbed his jaw and looked out the window, his mind swirling around two days. One day was familiar enough to him: he'd thought about Cuba so often that he sometimes wondered if he could recite every moment of it from start to finish. So much of his life had changed after that day, so many decisions, good and bad, had been made.

The other was the day at the White House, watching his sister be the woman he knew she was, and letting Erik go. If he'd let him be taken, then none of this would have happened. Charles wasn't sure that the outcome would have been a happy one, but he knew that this exact scenario would not have played out.

Hypotheticals had never gotten him anywhere, but this one was starting to weigh on him.

"Charles?" Hank asked.

He laced his hands together. He'd given up running his hands through his hair when he realized that it was thinning. He didn't like being reminded of that fact.

"I'm not sure what we would say. I can't think of anything that could calm them," said Charles, "No matter what, we're still telling them that the terrorist organization they're all scared of just made their move last night."

"But we should say something, shouldn't we?" Hank asked, "I mean, we should do something."

There it was. Charles closed his eyes. Behind the walls of the school, he was powerful. He was molding young minds, minds of the people he hoped would be the next generation of leaders. He was giving them the tools they needed to create change, to fight for the rights of their kind, give them the ability to be the voice of the voiceless. He was giving them the gift of a future.

However, with everything Erik destroyed, he could see that future narrowing. The image of himself, old, beaten, the cracks in his life and his heart beginning to show, staring back at him from a dark room lit only by the fires of war that raged outside.

He looked back at Hank, one of the most loyal men he had ever seen. He was also one of the most intelligent, and Charles considered himself privileged to be friends with him. there was something simple about the way he saw things, but also something clear.

"Something," Charles repeated.

He looked out the window again, the word clanging through his mind.

"Hank, I've been asking myself that for a while," he said, "I keep thinking that, surely, there must be something we can do. Surely we should be able to fix the problem in some manner. Sometimes I just tell myself that Erik will realize that what he is doing is hurting us."

Charles laughed.

"But if hearing about a world where our present course would end in destruction wouldn't change Erik's mind, then I'm not sure that I can wait any longer," he said, "I have a feeling that this latest attack is the start of something new, and we need to look at matters in a different light."

"When you say different..." Hank said.

Charles turned around and wheeled up to his desk. He began digging around his desk's top drawer, looking for his address book.

"I mean non-academic," he said, "I may be a peaceful man Hank, but there are times for protests, rallies, and speeches, and then there are times for something else."

He found his address book underneath a few graded papers. Charles brushed the papers off. It was a thick book, and several extra pages had been stuffed in since he'd bought it. Undoing the clasps, Charles began flipping through the pages. When he found the name he was looking for, he paused.

"I can't guarantee that this is the only time that we'll have to do this," he said, "And I can't guarantee that it's even going to work. But if there's one thing that I learned from what my sister did, it's that the actions of one can change a nation."

His eyes met Hank's.

"Will you follow me again?" he asked.

Hank smiled. There was so much pain in that small expression, a pain that they both shared. They had been through so much together, and while Charles knew Hank couldn't' stay at the Institute forever, he wished he could.

It meant so much to have someone who understood.

"Of course," he said.

"Thank you Hank," said Charles.

He felt a weight lift off his chest. He knew that there were going to be trials ahead, but they couldn't sit idly by anymore.

"I need to give Alex a call," he said.


	26. Chapter 26

The first wave had, of course, been focusing on destroying facilities. Peter had been used to doing that: it was something he'd done even before he was a member of the Brotherhood. Well, that had been more vandalism, but he figured that it still counted.

When he saw the residential addresses, he began to get a little more uncomfortable. Magneto had assured him that the mission tonight wasn't a kill mission, just an act of intimidation. Peter had raided Kelly's office before: destroying his house was practically the same thing. Practically.

So, it was with an uneasy heart that he followed Magneto into the ground floor of Kelly's house. He repeated in his head everything Kelly had said about mutants, calling them freaks, creatures that didn't even belong sharing the same planet as normal people.

The architecture of the building didn't help. Kelly was clearly loaded, and he'd spent his money on fripperies. With every step Peter felt his resolve harden. What did Kelly know about hardship, about pain, about being different? What had he done to deserve all of this while Peter had worked for years for his family, for his species, and had so little progress?

A man like this shouldn't be given a microphone. He shouldn't be listened to, voted into office. Instead, the world had bought into lies because they had wanted to. They nodded, believing things that they shouldn't just because it was convenient for them to do so.

Revolutions began in many ways, but one way was definitely that the disenfranchised got sick and tired of being oppressed. It came to that moment where they decided that they weren't going to stand for the way people treated them anymore, that they weren't going to let this stand.

Peter smiled grimly. He'd stood up, and now it was time for his voice to be heard.

* * *

><p>"Are you ready?"<p>

There was a note of concern in Charles's voice. Hank readjusted his jacket and took off his glasses. He wasn't going to need them this night. While he'd never felt comfortable walking around in the guise of Beast, at least it meant that he didn't need his glasses. Animals didn't need things to augment their sight when they were in a fight, and neither did he.

"Of course I am," Hank said.

He cracked his neck. It wasn't exactly painful to transform, not since that first time, but it wasn't comfortable either. The serum he had used to suppress his blue form was strong, and focusing enough to switch form could often leave him with a headache. The sensation of shifting forms was a queasy one, and the first few seconds were disorienting.

Hank was also having to use more and more serum every few months. No point in burdening Charles with that information though.

"And Alex is in position?" he asked.

"Yes," Charles said.

Something inside him cried out. He had thought that this was over, that they could do things their way. Sometimes though, sometimes the world needed soldiers. It was why they had been given gifts, to protect the needy whenever they needed them.

"Are you sure it's going to be these locations?" asked Hank.

"I used Cerebro to find Peter and his sister," Charles said, "Erik's helmet shields him somehow, and it creates a kind of extra cloaking on the people around him. Makes them harder to find. Not impossible, just harder."

He leaned back in the car, his hands in his lap. Hank suddenly realized why he'd slept the entire way there.

"But those two are easier to find, probably because I've met them," he said, "And I already knew it was going to be D.C. I'm following their minds a bit, and I'm sure about the locations. Hopefully we won't be too late."

"Are you sure you're up for this?" Hank asked.

"Yes," Charles said.

It was probably the closest answer he was going to get, so he decided to accept it. It wasn't as though he could afford not to.

"The minute you see them, I want you to contact me," Charles said, "They're very powerful and...I don't want this to go bad."

"Neither do I," said Hank, "But this is going too far."

The words felt like such a cliché, as well as impotent. Surely there had to be a better way to describe the sheer level of wrongness that everything had taken since Cuba. As much as he wished otherwise though, and not for the first time in his life, words failed him.

"If we don't shut this down soon...I don't know what's going to happen next," he said.

"That's not true," Charles said, "I think we both know what happens next."

Hank clenched and unclenched his fists.

"Do you really think that we managed to change things?" he asked, "I mean, Logan left and everything, and for all we know that's a good sign, but..."

"I'm not sure either," said Charles, "I hope that we did, but just passively hoping that everything is fine now is not something that I can accept anymore."

"Me neither," Hank said.

He fitted his cowl over his head. It wouldn't do much to protect his identity, he was relying on his blue form to do that, but he knew that it was going to help Alex out. Whether or not they were successful tonight, they couldn't have anyone recognize him.

"So let's get to work," said Hank.

* * *

><p>Wanda knew exactly whose home she was going into that night with Jason. Astra, Domino, and Toad were on standby, waiting to support them when they needed back-up. She didn't think that they would need much back-up. Even though Stryker was in the military, it wasn't like he was home.<p>

She didn't know if Peter's target was in the house that night, but she hoped that he wasn't. Magneto had assured them that these were vandalism missions only. They were still in the stage where they destroyed property. They weren't common terrorists after all, and the whole point of this was to send a message, not shed blood.

So she continued on with Jason at her side. The alarms had been a little difficult to disarm by manual means, so she had just put her hand on one of them, letting her energy flow through it. It had been a little draining, they had kept up a punishing schedule over the past few days, but she could take it.

They were almost at their target now. The plan was to get to the basement and start another fire. She was staring to long for plastic explosives, but they weren't trained enough to safely use them. Magneto was doubtful that they would be able to get out fast enough without Astra's help. With that in mind, she decided not to push the issue.

They got to the basement easily enough. She took out the canister of lighter fluid, feeling relieved. So far everything had gone smoothly. All they had to do was start the fire and then crawl out of the basement window. There were several crates around, probably filled with army surplus. It would make it easy to climb out.

After they were done, they would linger for a little bit. Magneto wanted them to watch from a distance, just to make sure that the fire really did catch. After that they could get out of there, and then maybe Wanda could catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow there would be another video claiming responsibility, and then there would be a new round of attacks. It would change everything.

The punch came out of nowhere. Wanda stumbled, almost falling on her back. At first she thought that Jason had finally shown his true colors and they were about to hash it out. Instead she had to blink a few times, because she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

There was some sort of monster in the basement, or at least one that had come down after they had. She had to shake the idea off quickly: there were no monsters, only people with visible mutations. This person couldn't be a mutant though: they were fighting them. Wanda could have sworn she felt fur in that punch though.

A few more seconds quickly made her change her mind. Whoever it was had taken a swipe at Jason, and there was blood coming from his arm. Wanda hated Jason, but he was on her team. She wasn't about to let some wacko kill him while she stood idly by.

She got up and splayed her fingers out. Crates began splaying in the air, hitting the man. He stumbled backwards, and Jason got his ground back. He began to twitch his fingers, but the man grabbed one of the crates and tossed it at him. Jason fell to the floor.

The man looked at her just as she sent a blast at him. It hit his arm, and she smelt singed fur. So he did have fur. There was a growl of pain as Jason got his wind back. He twitched his fingers and the man held his head, a low hiss coming from between his teeth.

Wanda began walking towards him, ready to demand what he was doing there. She stopped in mid-step, her body freezing. She tried to force herself to move, to continue on, but she could barely even blink.

_Clean up and leave._

The words seemed ridiculous, but Wanda immediately felt herself obeying. She picked up the can of lighter fluid and put it away. Wanda grabbed a mop and, with Jason at her side, began to mop up the floor. His expression was furious, so she could only assume that whatever was happening to her was happening to him as well.

Soon, even the faintest traces of gasoline were gone.

_Undo whatever damage you did, and then leave._

Wanda felt herself walking upstairs, Jason at her side. The man walked behind him, and she saw that he was clutching his arm. She felt pleased, but angry that she couldn't have done more damage. He was obviously the one doing this to them, playing them like puppets. Wanda hated it, and she hated him with a passion for doing this to her.

She choked back rage and humiliation as she rearmed the alarms. Everything within her burned and there was no way to express it. Wanda headed out to the street. she caught Jason's face. He looked like he was concentrating, figuring something out. All she could think about what she had just done, all the work that she had been forced to erase.

_Call the authorities and turn yourself in, but make sure that you're some distance from here._

Wanda wanted to scream. What was happening to them? She felt herself begin to look for a phone.

_Call the SSR. The number is-_

Whatever the number was, Wanda never found out. Jason roared next to her and she felt whatever it was that had control over her snap. He grabbed her forearm and began sprinting away, yanking he ralong with him. For once she didn't resent him intruding on her personal space and just ran with him.

The man who had followed them out of the house reached for them, but Wanda sent another blast his way, aiming it at his injured arm. He gave another growl, and the force of the blast knocked him to the ground. Wanda hoped it crippled him for life.

She didn't look back after that: just kept running. Houses flicked past her line of vision, but all she could think about was getting back to the car a few blocks away. They could try to figure out what had happened later.

Wanda hoped that Peter was having a better night than she was.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: **There's about four more chapters left in this story, but don't worry. After that there's going to be a sequel in about two weeks, because I've started to notice that I have a strange tendency not to do standalone stories._


	27. Chapter 27

Sometimes Peter wondered exactly how big someone's house had to be. He'd been living with several other people for years now, and their most spacious hideouts had never even been half as big as Kelly's house.

Kelly's house was practically a mansion, and he was just one person. Although Peter had little idea about how much civil servants were paid, or about how much they were supposed to be paid, he was starting to get the feeling that there was some dealing under the table going on.

It made him dislike Kelly even more, and he once again reminded himself why they had to burn the place down. Magneto was getting the supplies ready in the basement, since it would give the house more time to have a slow burn.

He'd just begun to unscrew the lids on the gasoline canisters when he heard a noise from the first floor. They both paused, and Peter looked at Magneto questioningly. The house was supposed to be abandoned since Kelly was attending a meeting in his constituency.

Magneto pointed the floor above him, and Peter nodded. He pulled on his goggles and rushed to investigate. When he got to the ground level he looked around. There didn't seem to be anyone there. None of the lights were on, no sign that the house's inhabitants had returned early.

He was about to go downstairs again, tell Magneto that there were some active mice upstairs or something, but there was another noise. It was big and clunky: too big for it to be mice. Peter turned away from the door and approached the room directly opposite it.

Peter put his hand on the doorknob and waited a few seconds. It would be ironic if it was just a burglar that they had to take down, but they weren't going to have any distractions. It might even be useful to have an eyewitness to establish that the Brotherhood had perpetrated the attack.

He flung the door open, and was hit in the chest with a blast. It forced Peter backwards and down the stairs to the basement. He hit the ground hard and rolled. Peter felt Magneto helping him, up, heard him asking questions.

There were some clunky footsteps. Peter looked up, realizing then that the man upstairs had wanted to be found. When the man finally came into view, Peter could see that he was wearing a cowl.

He felt Magneto tense next to him.

"Alex," he said.

"You know this guy?" Peter asked.

"We've met," Alex said.

He leaned against the wall, his hands folded across his chest.

"Before this guy was planning terror attacks and was, more or less, a kind of decent human being," Alex said, "God, it was a while ago.'

"Vietnam didn't teach you any humility I take it?" said Magneto.

"Taught me a lot of things, but not that one," he said, "Not the way you think of it. As much as I'd like to clock you one for what you've been doing over the past few weeks, my instructions were to talk first."

"Instructions?" asked Magneto.

Peter snorted next to him. He got to his feet, the bruises from his fall down the stairs smarting.

"Yeah, you flung me across a room," Peter said.

"You wouldn't listen to what I have to say," said Alex, "And even if you did, you don't have the authority to do anything about it."

"And I'm of the opinion that if Charles has something he wants to say, he can say it to me himself," Magneto said, "We'll be seeing him in about three months anyway."

Charles? That guy who was taking care of Lorna? Peter gave Alex a shrewd look. He'd never seen him at the school, although it was hard to tell with the cowl. It was difficult to imagine that he would be from there though. He'd just casually sent Peter flying down to the basement, and that gave him the feeling that this guy wouldn't make a great teacher.

"No idea what that means, but this isn't the type of message that can wait," Alex said, "You need to stop this shit Mags."

"I think Charles would have phrased things a little more elegantly," said Magneto.

"Maybe, but I'm the one who's here, not him," Alex said, "You are doing the exact opposite of helping us out now. Do you have any idea of the damage you've been doing? We had a decent atmosphere out here a couple years ago, and now it's turning toxic."

Magneto laughed again.

"It's turning toxic because it's always going to be toxic," he said.

"That or you're stirring up a lot of fear," said Alex, "Logically, which one is more likely? Considering all the shit you've destroyed."

"Bullshit," Peter snapped.

"Hey, speedy boy," said Alex, waving his hand, "Zip it. You don't belong in this conversation."

Peter bristled, but Magneto made a gesture to him.

"He's one of mine Alex," he said, "He's just a part of this as anyone."

"Great. That means you've ruined his life too," Alex said coldly, "Just like you tried to do ours. You almost made it."

"After what happened to Sean, I'm shocked that you an take that tone," said Magneto.

A few seconds passed, and Alex sucked in a breath. Peter's memory brought forth the conversation he'd had with Magneto the day they'd killed Killbrew. Were they talking about that Sean?

There was no time to clarify, since Alex sent a blast straight to Magneto's chest. Magneto moved to dodge it and Alex glared at the two of them, his hands glowing with red light. It reminded Peter a little of the light that Wanda used.

"You don't get to say his name," hissed Alex, "Not anymore."

Magneto flexed his fingers and one of the bookcases hurtled towards Alex. He rolled, but Peter was ready for him. The shot across the room had pissed him off, and he was ready to get some sweet revenge in.

He was a little surprised when he was met with that same explosive force. When he oriented himself he saw that Alex had surrounded himself with the light, his eyes narrowed in concentration. Peter wouldn't be able to touch him.

"Let's take this outside," Alex said.

"Why, so you can avoid any damage to your precious senator's house?" Magneto asked.

"I hate the asshole just as much as you do," sneered Alex, "I'm just saying we shouldn't be fighting around a bunch of gasoline and matches."

Peter realized that, although the gasoline canisters were still sealed, they had been knocked around. If they made some wrong moves, the would burst. He thought about Alex's words, and realized that the places where Alex had hit him were itchy and warm. Whatever this guy did, it burned.

Magneto seemed to know more about Alex's abilities than he did, or maybe he had just drawn the same conclusions. Magneto narrowed his eyes and exited through the basement door onto the lawn.

"You know this makes us more visible," he said.

"I know," Alex said, "Not sure I care at this point."

Once they had touched the lawn, Alex lunged for Magneto. Peter stopped him, tackling him and pushing him to the ground. He half expected another blast, but instead he felt a punch across his face. It felt like a crowbar.

Peter fell to the side, but got up in time to deliver several blows to Alex. He saw Alex flash red, so he quickly withdrew. He couldn't keep doing damage to himself in the hope that he would get some good hits in on Alex. It just wouldn't make sense.

A lawn chair hit Alex in the chest, sending him to the ground. The different pieces began twisting, and Alex sent out two more blasts. Magneto dodged them both and then flexed his fingers. The strands of metal in the lawn chair went wild.

Two of them encircled Alex's wrists and pulled him to the ground. Alex struggled to get up, but two other pieces twined around his legs.

"That was predictable Alex," he said, "I expected more of you."

"Actually, I expected more of you," Alex panted, "Idiot."

Peter rolled his eyes. What was up with this guy?

_Oh, there's nothing wrong with him. Nothing at all. But I need you to stop this moment._

He tried to look around to figure out who'd said that, but he couldn't move. Magneto was looking at him, concerned.

"Quicksilver?" he asked.

_Stay still._

Peter wanted desperately to answer, but he couldn't. Magneto's eyes narrowed and he yanked a walkie-talkie out of his pocket. Good. He was calling Astra and the rest. Having some back-up against whatever was happening would be good.

There was a roar. Peter wanted to turn, but he couldn't. He just kept staring ahead, the voice in his head telling him to stay exactly where he was. Magneto began swearing and Peter saw the metal around Alex's wrists and legs turn red hot.

His entire body became encased in the red light, and the metal melted from him. Alex stumbled back to his feet as Astra and Domino arrived. Where was Toad? Alex whipped around as soon as they did. Peter wanted to shout a warning, but he still couldn't.

Astra immediately froze, and he knew whatever had happened to her had happened to him too. Personally, he couldn't care but, strategically, he was horrified. Their teleporter had just been taken out of commission. Domino turned to look at her, probably wondering what had happened, and Alex shot a blast at her. She was knocked backwards, but managed to stay upright.

Both of her guns came out and she began shooting. Alex began charging her, dodging most of the bullets. He'd never seen her miss before, but Alex was moving in zig-zagging steps. Whoever, he was, he was used to coming under fire. Even so Peter saw one or two of the bullets scrape his face or clip his arm. It didn't seem to bother Alex. He just continued running until he tackled her.

The two of them fell to the ground. Behind him there was more roaring and the screeching sound of metal. The fight between Magneto and his opponent was still raging, and it was difficult to tell who was winning. Domino and Alex struggled for a moment before the two separated. She looked up at Alex just in time to get another blast to her face.

She fell backwards and Alex walked up to her. Peter wanted to scream at him to leave his teammates alone, to stop what he was doing, to understand what they were doing. He was a mutant too: why didn't he understand.

Instead he kicked Domino in the head as she tried to get up, and Peter saw her lose consciousness. Alex looked over at Astra and punched her in the face. She went down too. He was taking them down when they couldn't do anything about it.

When he was done with Astra, Alex looked at Peter. He had a sinking feeling that he was going to be next. There was nothing he could do but watch as Alex walked towards him, red light already surrounding his fist.

A metal chair hit Alex in the chest, sending him to the ground. Magneto grabbed Peter's arm and began to pull him along.

_Stay where you are._

He didn't want to, but he fought Magneto's pull. Magneto again looked surprised, and he hissed between his teeth.

"Goddamnit Charles!"

His fist came back, connecting with Peter's face. After that, everything went black.


	28. Chapter 28

"What the hell happened tonight!?"

Jason's voice thundered through the room. Magneto was seated, his fingers drumming angrily on his armrest. Peter looked over at him. His head still hurt, but if Magneto hadn't knocked him out, then he'd probably be locked up in the same hellhole as Astra and Domino.

They'd heard some radio chatter from the local police about the two being taken into custody. He'd had the dubious honor of telling Toad what had gone down. They'd left him behind at their base because they thought they could use him as part of a surprise attack later. Astra had never gotten the chance to follow through.

He'd had to repeat the news to Wanda and Jason when they got back. Peter hadn't minded, because he was so relieved that Wanda was alright. She spoke of the same voice invading her mind, and Peter had just hugged her tightly.

He burned with anger. Another mutant had stopped them. It was humiliating and stupid. Why couldn't they understand what they were trying to do? Why couldn't they let them be, let them finish their mission?

"Some old friends showed up," Magneto seethed.

"You knew who they were?" demanded Jason.

Peter glared over at Jason. Magneto had just saved his life, and he wasn't going to let Jason continue to be an asshole. It didn't even matter that he was the one who had apparently broken away from the voice's control and helped Wanda. The guy needed to show some respect.

"Of course I did," snapped Magneto.

"Then why were they a threat tonight?"

Magneto's eyes narrowed.

"Until tonight I was under the impression that they had, for lack of a better word, retired," Magneto said, "Evidently I was wrong."

"Is that all you have to say?" Jason snarled, "That man was in my head! I want his head on a platter!"

In one swift motion, Magneto got to his feet. He towered over Jason, his eyes boring holes into him.

"You will do no such thing," he said, "Do you understand me?"

Jason swallowed, shrinking slightly under Magneto's gaze.

"If he's a threat-"

"You will do no such thing!" Magneto roared.

Jason shrank away, cowed. Magneto turned to the rest of them, his teeth clenched.

"You deserve to know what happened tonight," he said, "And it's quite simple. There are mutants out there who think we are going about this the wrong way. They prefer to waste their time with talking, time that would be better spent fighting."

He shook his head. Peter watched him, his voice stuck in his throat.

"And yes, the people you met tonight were good fighters," he said, "Strong and powerful. If we had been prepared for them, we could have taken them. But one of them was a telepath, and that was what you felt tonight. He's never used his powers like that before, but it appears that we've reached a new level."

Peter felt his voice loosen a little.

"How long have you known him?" he asked.

Magneto looked at Peter, his expression softening a little.

"You've met him too," he said.

Peter frowned, trying to think of what Magneto could mean. Suddenly, he realized that there was only one person that Magneto had ever referred to as a friend. He thought of the man in the wheelchair, a man he had entrusted his sister too.

He looked at Wanda, and saw his feelings mirrored in her eyes.

"We-" Peter said.

"No matter," said Magneto shortly, "A mistake was made. It will be rectified."

He turned on his heel and faced Jason.

"You will not go after him," he said.

"I'll do what I want," Jason swore, "I'm not just someone who will blindly follow you around, especially not after tonight."

As much as Peter wanted to punch Xavier in the face, he could only feel contempt for Jason. Magneto must have his reasons for not wanting Xavier to be harmed, and those reasons would be good ones. He was sure of it.

"Then go," Magneto said, "But you won't pursue this."

"And why not?" snapped Jason.

"Because if you do, I'll inform your mistress that you kept the forms documenting her fingerprints and other forms of identification from the system," Magneto said. "I can only assume that she originally asked you to destroy them."

Jason paled, and a small smirk appeared on Wanda's face. Peter had been there when she had quietly informed Magneto what she had observed. Once again, someone had underestimated her and paid the price for it.

Straightening his jacket, Jason stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Magneto looked back at them, his expression unaffected.

"We have lost two of our members tonight," he said, "A third was never really worthy to be among us. It may be a long time before we can strike again, but rest assured, we will strike."

He shook his head again.

"As I said, a mistake has been made," he said, his eyes falling on Wanda and Peter, "We're going to need to lie low, but first we need to head to New York. Among other things, there's the matter of your sister to discuss."

Peter couldn't agree more.

* * *

><p>Charles was exhausted. The night had pushed his powers to their limits, and he felt as though he could sleep for a year. Sleep wasn't going to happen in the near future, although it was a comforting thought. The strangest thing about being a vigilante with a day job was that he still had papers to grade.<p>

He leaned back in his chair, his papers scattered over the table. Perhaps he could fall asleep in the library, but he was also emotionally beaten. That night he had deliberately gone after his friend's team. It had been a planned, methodical attack in a way that he had never before done. He had been close to handing his old friend over to the authorities, and had succeeded in the case with two of his teammates.

Originally he had been uneasy handing Domino and Astra over to the SSR. Some of the taskforce's members had been friends with Alex in Vietnam, and he swore that they would treat the two fairly and humanely. They had specialized holding cells, and they would get a swift trial. Alex said that he could ensure that everything went well, and that the agent who headed this department was known for her efficiency and almost brutal fairness. Charles was unfamiliar with this Agent Carter, but he supposed that if she had Alex's endorsement that counted for something.

The three of them hadn't had much time to discuss the SSR and what would be done with the people they managed to capture, but it had been enough. The death penalty would be unlikely since the SSR had its own vested interest in keeping mutant deaths down. Alex had been a little vague on why that was, but he said it had something to do with the bureau's involvement in Project Rebirth. It was the first experiment that had ever mutated a human, and there would be hell to pay for it if the public suddenly turned against mutants in general. Charles would have preferred a more altruistic reason, but he had to take what he could get.

He looked out the window glumly. Alex had told him that, although he wasn't part of the SSR, he would personally oversee what happened to the prisoners. He'd helped Charles bandage Hank's arm, and then he'd headed out. He'd told Charles to contact him if he needed him again, and Charles had a sinking feeling that he would.

The reassurances that Erik wouldn't be killed had been the only thing that had allowed him to give the order that, if possible, he should be taken down. It gave Charles no pleasure, but it had had to be done. He couldn't have them burning down politicians houses. It was only one step from there to assassinations, and Logan had shown him what that resulted in.

In a few hours, a newscast would come out saying that unknown mutants had apprehended members of the Brotherhood. Again, Alex had told him that Carter knew how to handle the press. There would be a softening and, in the resulting manhunt and loss of two members, the Brotherhood would have its hands tied from any major actions. Charles didn't know if the reprieve would last five months or five years, but he knew there would be a short one.

They had bought time that night. That was all. There would be other consequences. He knew that Erik would be angry. There was no way that he would have failed to realize who was behind the ambush. It would be another blow to their trust, but what could he do? Erik couldn't think that he would be happy to sit back and let these things happen. Charles had passively housed a potential Brotherhood member and not reported when Erik came to the school's doorstep. Those were things he could let slide, but not this.

Which brought him back to Lorna. He knew that he had lost her. Lorna turned seventeen in three months, but Erik wouldn't wait three months after this. He might not see it as being retaliatory, but he wouldn't trust Charles with her any longer. He would sweep her up into a life she was afraid of, her two siblings pulling her with them every step of the way.

"Professor?"

He turned and sighed.

"Lorna, why are you up this late?" he asked sadly.

She gave him a shrug.

"I have trouble sometimes," Lorna said, "I was wondering what you were doing up so late."

She looked over at the papers in front of him.

"Are you that far behind?" she asked.

"A bit," Charles admitted, "Nothing I can't handle."

"Mmmhm," she said.

Lorna leaned on a bookcase, resting her head on the wood. Charles put his pen down.

"Lorna, I feel like there's something that you should know," he said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, "Did something happen to Peter and Wanda?"

Her voice was anxious, and he rushed to soothe her.

"No, no," he said.

"Then what?" asked Lorna.

Charles resisted the urge to leave this until morning. He needed her to know as soon as possible so that she could prepare. The next few days was probably going to be very difficult for her, and he needed her to know what she was going to do.

"I think your brother and sister may be coming for you sooner than we expected," he said, "Sooner than you thought."

Lorna stiffened, and her eyes widened.

"Why?" she asked, "I mean, could they always come back for me early?"

"Oh, I, um, I don't, um," Charles stammered, "I don't know."

"Then why would they come now?" asked Lorna, her voice desperate, "I...they don't...they would come for me. I've never doubted that."

No. He supposed that she wouldn't.

"I've heard some reports," said Charles, "It's difficult to describe, and I'm sure that they'll be able to talk about it better themselves. Either way, they might be coming for you as early as tomorrow. Maybe a day or two later, but I think that they'll be coming soon."

Lorna just continued to stare at him, her large green eyes slowly filling with tears.

"What happened?" she said.

"A...they might want to discuss this with you," Charles said, "But I don't think that they're going to be trusting anyone else with your keeping from now on."

He decided against mentioning that it just would be him that they wouldn't trust. Lorna looked away.

"I don't need to be kept," she murmured.

Charles nodded slowly. Lorna bowed her head and pushed off from the bookcase.

"I need to go and, well," she said.

She probably needed to go pack. He nodded as she turned, heading towards the door. Charles continued to look at her, thinking about all of the potential that he was giftwrapping for the Brotherhood. Such a waste.

Lorna stopped just before she left, not turning around.

"Professor?"

"Yes?" he asked.

"When was the last time you saw your sister?"

The question caught him off-guard. He looked at Lorna for a moment more, pain lacing his words.

"Not since she stopped Magneto from killing the president."

Lorna didn't turn to face him, just bowed her head. Without another word she left the room.


	29. Chapter 29

Charles wasn't particularly surprised when Erik stormed unannounced into his office, flanked by Wanda and Peter. He was a little surprised by the hour, it was in the middle of the afternoon, but he'd been preparing for a confrontation since the SSR had clamped cuffs on Astra and Domino.

He looked up from his paperwork and caught Hank's eye as he followed them in. His friend's jaw was set, and he imagined that there had been words in the corridor. Because he hadn't heard the sound of any damage downstairs, he assumed that Hank had been able to hold onto his temper. His injured arm was in a sling, and he was in no condition to fight. It wouldn't have stopped him if the need arose, but Charles would prefer that he rested the arm.

_Did any of the students see them?_ he thought.

_No,_ Hank thought back, _But there were a few close calls. _

_I see._

"Thank you Hank," he said, "You can go."

Hank glared at the three before leaving, closing the door behind him. He knew that he wouldn't go far, which was both comforting and problematic. He had to remind himself that this was Erik, and he could only comfort himself that maybe he wouldn't attack him in the school. Charles was more than aware that he had significantly altered the rules of their situation.

He leaned back in his chair, looking Erik in the eye.

"We did have a discussion about you coming here conspicuously," he said, "I would have thought you remembered."

"Quite a few arguments went out the window after the other night," hissed Erik.

"Not that one," Charles said, "It's still valid. Agree or disagree with me, there are children here. Mutant children, which I believe you care about."

"Seems like you're not particularly interested in protecting them after they grow up," Peter said.

Charles turned to face him. There was a harshness in Peter's face that made him despair. He didn't believe that anyone was past saving, but he did see Peter as being more difficult than most. There was a darkness in him now that he hadn't seen when he had first seen the arrogant teen years ago.

And he was going to turn Lorna into that.

"I am very interested," Charles said, "Which is, of course, why I had to intervene. I can't let people think that you are the only mutants out there. Not with what you've been doing."

Peter opened his mouth and Erik held up a hand to silence him.

"You know why we're here, don't you?" he asked.

"Of course I do," said Charles, "If Hank thought it was for revenge you wouldn't even be in my office. No, you're here for Lorna. Hank has instructions to tell her you're here when you arrive."

Some of the anger leeched from Peter and Wanda's faces when he mentioned their sister. He was glad that there was still love there. It wasn't much of a comfort to him, but at least they cared. She would have some love where she was going.

"Quicksilver, Scarlet," Erik said, "Go outside and wait for your sister. I need to have a few words with Charles."

Wanda's head turned towards the door, her entire figure bleeding relief and excitement. She left almost at once, obviously not interested in the events of the office. Peter followed her, but he found time to glare at Charles. He was going to have to watch out for him.

When the door closed Erik turned to him.

"Why?" he asked.

"You know why," said Charles, "And if you didn't, I just repeated my reasons to Peter."

"He refers to himself as Quicksilver now," Erik said.

"I'm more than aware," said Charles, "And I'm going to call him Peter, and I'm going to call you Erik."

Erik let out a frustrated growl.

"Why?"

"Because I still believe that, beneath everything he's done, he's that arse of a teen who decided to break someone out of the Pentagon in order to satisfy some strange kleptomaniac tendency," Charles said, "And I still believe that you're my friend."

"Friends don't try to get their friends arrested," said Erik.

"No," Charles admitted, "I suppose not. But they don't let the world burn for them either."

There was a long pause.

"Who took my people?" asked Erik.

"I'm not telling you that," Charles said.

"You've signed them up for dissection, and you're not telling me where they are?" demanded Erik.

"Alex is personally overseeing their detention," said Charles, "Having almost been dissected himself, he has an aversion to that sort of thing."

There was another pause. Erik crossed his arms and shook his head.

"You think you're doing the right thing, but you're only making things worse," he said.

"I could say the same thing about you," Charles said, "But we've had this discussion before."

"So we have."

"I haven't managed to change your mind yet," said Charles, "But I will try."

Erik smiled grimly.

"As will I old friend. As will I."

* * *

><p>Peter stood in the hallway, hopping from one foot to another impatiently. He was getting a little sick of waiting around, especially now that he knew he was in the house of an enemy. It was a congenial, polite enemy, but that just made it all the more frustrating.<p>

Wanda kept looking at the end of the corridor hopefully at every sound. For his part Peter wondered what was taking Lorna so long. Maybe Xavier hadn't told her that they would be coming and she needed to pack? Why couldn't she just come down and get them? Peter could help her pack: they'd be done in five minutes.

"Peter? Wanda?"

He turned. Evidently no one had thought to tell them that the staircase that led upstairs was at the other end of the hallway. He turned, intending to run up to his sister and scoop her up in a hug like he'd always used to.

Instead he stopped, because there was going to be no scooping with the young woman he saw in front of him. Peter felt stupid, expecting to see his short little sister waiting at the other end of the hall. Lorna was as tall as him now, her fragile build bulked out slightly.

Her hair was green, green for crying out loud! When had that happened? He'd always thought that Xavier was something of a hippie, but having green hair dye lying around where students could use it? Come on!

But when she smiled at the sight of them, that unglued his feet. It was still Lorna's old, familiar smile, that smile that lit up her entire face. Her eyes still glowed when she was happy, and they were beaming now.

He raced forward and wrapped his arms around her. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, almost painfully. Wand was there too, laughing and turning it into a group hug. For a moment Peter closed his eyes and sighed. He'd needed something like this after the past day.

After a moment he released Lorna and ruffled her hair.

"You're finally gettin tall," he said, "And your hair? What happened there? Chemistry experiment gone wrong?"

"Little quirk of my mutation," Lorna said, grabbing a few strands and looking at them, "Dr. McCoy had a theory about oxidization, but I'm not sure."

"It suits you actually," said Wanda.

Lorna offered a tentative smile, and Peter put his hand on her shoulder.

"Let's go get your bags," he said, "I know he musta told ya this, but you're gonna be coming home with us today."

His sister paused and began chewing on her lip.

"I think I'd better talk to the Professor first," she said.

Peter tightened his grip on her shoulder.

"No," he said, "I don't want you around that asshole."

Lorna's eyes widened and Wanda shot him a look. Come on. When had telling the truth ever been a bad thing?

"He's the reason two of our people are behind bars today," he said, "His people interrupted a big op last night, and two of ours got captured."

His sister gave him a frank, unfamiliar look.

"What were you doing?"

The question caught him off guard, as did the soft, almost sad tone. Wanda frowned a little too, so he knew it wasn't just him.

"Oh, we were going to burn down some politicians' houses," he said, "No one was in em or anything."

There was a slightly longer pause now, but Lorna nodded.

"All the same," she said, "He's um, he's still my headmaster and everything, so I think we need to say something."

Peter rolled his eyes and sighed. Ever the considerate one.

"Okay, but wait. Mags is in there talking to him right now," he said, "I don't wanna interrupt or anything."

Lorna smiled at him and squeezed the hand on her shoulder. He thought he felt it tremble, but he wasn't sure. With her spare hand she took Wanda's.

"I love you two," she said, "And I missed you so much."

"We missed you too," Wanda said, "You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to it being the three of us again."

Was it his imagination, or did Lorna's hand tremble again? He wondered if she was sick just as the door opened. Magneto smiled when he saw Lorna, and she smiled back, letting go of her siblings' hands. She ducked her head sightly.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"Just a moment," she said, "I, I need to talk. In fact, it's probably best if you're all here."

Magneto looked at Peter who shrugged again. Maybe she wanted moral support from them, or maybe she didn't want to go into the room alone after what he'd told her. Either way Lorna pulled away from him and walked inside. Peter and Wanda followed, Magneto close behind.

Lorna walked up to Xavier's desk, her hands clenched behind her back. Xavier's face looked sad, but he smiled at her.

"You've been an excellent student over the past few years Lorna," he said, "Your teachers will be sad to see you go, but-"

"Professor?" Lorna interrupted, "Can I say something?"

He blinked a few times, looking shocked. As much as he disliked Xavier, Peter couldn't help but feeling shocked too. Lorna didn't interrupt.

"Yes, yes of course," he said.

"Alright," Lorna said, "I...don't want to have to say this twice."

She cleared her throat, and then turned around to face them. Lorna took a deep breath, her eyes lowered and her hands still behind her back.

"I haven't been idle while I've been here," she said, "I've gotten good grades, run track, practiced my mutation. Done a lot."

"I'm sure you have," Wanda said, "You were never one to be idle."

Lorna closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Peter began to get the feeling that something was going wrong somewhere along the line.

"I've watched a lot of news, and I've watched a lot of people," she said, "And I've stayed up nights, thinking and hoping and well...trying to figure out who I am."

She opened her eyes and straightened her back. A sick feeling started in Peter's gut.

"And I realized I'm not like you," she said, "I can't do what you do because...what you're doing isn't who I am, isn't what I believe in. I can't be part of the Brotherhood."

Peter felt his heart plummet to the floor, her next words echoing in her ears.

"I'm staying right here."


	30. Chapter 30

"What the hell?" Peter shouted.

Lorna flinched at his words, taking a step back so that she bumped up against Xavier's desk. He could see that Xavier was getting worried, but screw him.

"I..I made my choice a while ago," Lorna said, "Peter, I know this sounds like it's coming out of nowhere, but I've been thinking about this for a long time-"

"Lorna, look, just-ugh," Peter said.

He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. Wanda cleared her throat next to her.

"I think that what Peter's trying to say is that we're here," she said, "We've come for you. This was always the plan."

"I know," Lorna said, "I always knew you were coming for me, and I would've talked to you before this if I could, but I couldn't. There was no way to contact you, no way to tell you what I was feeling. There just wasn't a way."

Peter ground the heels of his hands in deeper.

"We were finally going to be together," Wanda said.

Her voice was soft, and through the anger enveloping him, he could feel his own disbelief and sadness. No. He wasn't going to let that take over, wasn't going to lose his sister just because she was having cold feet.

"Lorna," he said, taking his hands away from his eyes, "Like Wanda said, this was always the plan. I thought you got that."

Lorna looked miserable. She began chewing on her lip, her eyes downcast.

"Peter-"

"We were always going to come for you when you were old enough to be part of the Brotherhood," Peter said, "That's what I told you."

"I know-"

"That was the agreement."

His little sister stopped chewing on her lip.

"Peter, could you repeat that?" she said.

"Sure," Peter said, "I'll say it a thousand times. This is what we agreed on-"

"That's what I thought you said. And that's kind of funny, because I don't ever remember agreeing to anything."

The words blank and heavy. Peter saw that the misery had disappeared from Lorna's face. Instead, she was looking at him with an expression that looked like it belonged to someone else, like Magneto trying to size someone up.

"In fact, if I remember correctly, I remember saying 'no, please don't,' quite a few times," Lorna said, her voice still blank, "I remember crying too."

Peter swallowed nervously, suddenly realizing just how his words sounded. Maybe he should've just kept his mouth shut. Luckily Wanda put her hand on his shoulder, looking at Lorna with a softer look.

"Listen, we're sorry that we had to leave you behind, but we didn't have a choice," said Wanda, "You know what happened that night: it was too dangerous for you Lorna."

"Too dangerous," Lorna murmured.

She crossed her arms, her eyes turning to the floor.

"You know, I've wondered for a long time about what happened the night Ink died," Lorna said, "About what went wrong."

Her words felt like a slap in the face. Where had that come from? Quickly he looked over at Xavier. If they were going to be talking about this, then he shouldn't be there. Xavier seemed to understand that, even began to wheel out from behind the desk, but Lorna moved one of her hands.

"No, you can stay," she said, "It's best if I only have to say this once."

"Lorna, what are you talking about?" asked Wanda.

"I guess I'm talking about assumptions," Lorna said, "About things we don't talk about, things we should have talked about."

"Look, whatever you're going through right now, we can talk about it later," Peter said, "Because I'm not going to just leave you here like this."

Lorna stiffened, and he saw her teeth clench.

"No," she said, "We're going to talk about this now, because one thing always bothered me about that night."

She looked up and Peter saw something he hadn't seen before in her eyes: anger.

"It was why were you two were so ready to believe that I would run at the first sign of trouble," she said, "Why you two always believed that I would run and cower like a frightened little girl when I knew the evacuation plan like the back of my hand, when you knew that I had spent three years being trained by the master of magnetism to stand my ground and fight."

Her hands fell by her side, her green eyes flicking between the two of them. Her words were short and clipped, as though a rehearsed speech was getting overrun by an outpouring of emotion. Peter wanted to interrupt, but he felt like a new member of the Brotherhood again, unable to interject in a matter that he knew he had little knowledge of.

"Why was it so hard to imagine that things could have happened differently, that maybe I didn't run to the furthest little corner to cower at the first sign of gunfire?" she said, "Why couldn't you imagine that I went looking for Astra, because she was the one who was supposed to take me to safety? Or maybe my brother and my sister, who I knew would be looking for me?"

She shook her head, her green hair swinging from side to side.

"But I didn't find you," she said, "I found Ink."

Understanding hit him like a bucket of cold water.

"Oh my God, Lorna," Wanda said softly, "Were you with him when he died? Why didn't you tell us?"

He expected Lorna to nod and cry, or do something that made sense. Instead she bristled.

"Why didn't I tell you?" she demanded.

A slight vibration began to ripple through the room, manifesting itself in a low buzzing noise. Peter saw a few metal trinkets on the shelves fall off their perches. Magneto shifted forward, and Peter saw Xavier begin to look worried.

"Lorna, calm down," Xavier said.

She ignored him, taking a step towards her siblings.

"Why didn't you know?" she demanded, "You saw the blood on my feet Wanda! You told me to clean up, just threw me a bandage after telling me I was the reason my brother got shot! Maybe you didn't notice, but Peter had blood all over his feet too, and you didn't assume that he hurt his feet!"

She turned to him then, her eyes exuding a pain that was rapidly spilling out.

"And you knew about the blood too!" she said, "You never asked, you never thought to ask! It never bothered you that it didn't make sense that someone who had killed six soldiers would get shot in the head at point blank range by his attackers! Never thought that it was unlikely that he wouldn't be able to see another shooter coming when he was facing the only other entrance to the hallway!"

Peter finally found his voice, ready to tell her that he'd been too busy trying to figure out what to do next. However, the full impact of her words hit him, making his knees buckle. Wanda still looked confused, but he knew. Oh God, he knew.

"You...you..." he said.

"I did what I was trained," Lorna said, tears spilling from her eyes, "I saw someone kill my friend and teammate, and did what I was taught, did what my siblings did on a daily basis."

Her voice lowered until it was barely more than a whisper.

"I killed them," she said, "I killed them all and there was so much blood. No one ever told me there was so much blood, and I started thinking about dad, about all the blood everywhere, and I just needed to get out because I was stepping in it, slipping in it, and I just needed to go as far as I could..."

Lorna's voice broke, dissolving into tears. Her hands clenched by her sides and the buzzing stopped. Peter walked up to her, tentatively putting his hands on her shoulders. He remembered the way she'd gaped when she'd seen him, only able to say his name, the shock of killing more people at fourteen than both of her siblings combined consuming her.

"All that time," Peter said, "And...Lorna, you never said a word."

She looked up then. The tears stopped abruptly and her jaw set, her eyes blazing with anger.

"Yes I did!" she shouted, "I tried, but you wouldn't listen! You never listened!"

"Of course we-" Peter began.

Memories suddenly began to flood his mind, scraps of conversation that, until then, he had dismissed.

_"I didn't do anything," Lorna said, her voice quivering-_

_"Please," Lorna said, "You don't know what happened. You don't know-"_

_"I wasn't a burden, I swear!" Lorna said, "I got up when I heard and-"_

_"Just...just listen," she said._

"Oh my God," he said.

"I loved you," she said, "I loved and trusted you. I gave up my entire life for the two of you: everything. Our mother wasn't perfect, but she loved us, and I loved her. But I loved you more."

She shook her head.

"And when you came home with blood on you, I knew what that meant for our future, my future," she said, "I knew what you and Wanda were becoming, but I still thought you were always right. And when you left me here, telling me that I was too...too me to come with you-"

Peter took a harsh breath. She had heard. All those years, he'd almost forgotten that he'd said that. She hadn't.

"-and you said that you couldn't give up the Brotherhood for me after I had given up my world for you," Lorna said, "Everything that I had given up...up until that point I thought it was worth it. Up until then, I'd thought you would do the same for me. I thought you needed me the same way I needed you. But you didn't, wouldn't even listen to my fears, and all those nights I cried myself to sleep because I knew you wouldn't like what I was thinking, so I how could I tell you?"

She squared her shoulders and Peter felt like crying. This wasn't happening. This couldn't have been how they had treated her, but more and more he wondered what it had been like for her, alone in the Brotherhood hideout with no one to talk to, thinking that expressing doubts would earn her the ire of the people she loved.

"And I still would have followed you, I think, because I'm stupid like that," Lorna said, "But almost every day I think about those men I killed, and I wonder if it was worth it. I only realized this lately, but the answer is that no, no it wasn't."

She wrestled her way out of Peter's grasp, walking to the back of the room. His hands felt limp when she brushed them away: there was no strength left in them. Peter watched her, entranced, unable to do anything.

"You left me without looking back because you thought it was your duty," she said, "But all I've seen you do since that day is kill and intimidate, spread fear. I have classmates who are scared to leave the school because of you. The Professor might think that I haven't noticed that, but I have."

Lorna looked at Magneto, her eyes meeting his. He didn't speak, just stared back at her. It was the look that he'd seen her direct towards him earlier, sizing her up, trying to figure something out.

"Thank you for taking us in when we were young with nowhere to go," Lorna said, "And thank you for bringing me here. But let's face it: I'm just an asset to you, something that you can shape and mold like you've molded my siblings. That's not my future."

She reached the door and paused, looking back at the two of them.

"I still love you both," Lorna said, "But I can't, won't be like you. I won't go down the path that you have. I'll always welcome you with open arms, but I will never be part of the Brotherhood."

With a last look back at them, Lorna left the office and closed the door.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: **Two more chapters to go. _


	31. Chapter 31

When the door snapped shut, Charles was still staring at it. For the three years that he had watched over Lorna, she had been silent on the matter of her siblings, on the Brotherhood, on what had happened that night. If Peter and Wanda hadn't argued with her, then she probably would have taken it to the grave.

Charles leaned back in his chair, breathing in the overpowering silence that pressed down on the room. Erik was looking away, ashamed. He hoped that his friend felt shame. It was one thing to let someone as young as Peter and Wanda into the Brotherhood, and it had been another catastrophic mistake to let Lorna in.

She had, at fourteen, found herself with blood on her hands and facing the world alone with a heavy burden of doubt. Charles understood her rationale for not talking to him. She hadn't made up her mind about whether or not she was going to return to her siblings, and she knew he didn't prescribe to his beliefs. Lorna had been willing to talk to her brother and sister, but they had left her without that option.

"We can't leave her here," Wanda said.

She sounded scared, almost panicked. Peter swallowed and grabbed her hand uncertainly. The two were going to make some hard decisions in the days ahead, mostly about how they wanted to contact their sister from now on. He had forbidden visits, but maybe they could find a way to work around things. Perhaps there was something, anything really, that they could do.

Lorna loved her siblings, and they loved her. Surely he could help them salvage that.

"The things she said.." Peter said, "We couldn't have...did we really...?"

"Lorna's upset," said Wanda, "She knew how much we cared."

Charles leaned forward on his desk now, watching the two intently. They couldn't be talking about what he thought they were.

"Right, right," Peter said, "She's upset, right, and she's got every right to be, but we can make things better."

Erik was watching the two curiously, and Charles wondered if he was thinking the same things that he was thinking. It was unlikely, but something similar had to be going through his mind.

"We...we've always, always been able to make things up to her in the past," said Wanda, "And we can listen in the future. She has to know that we're sorry, but...now that she's told us, things can be different. We can change."

"Yeah," Peter said, sounding relieved, "Let's just go upstairs and talk to her. In a few minutes she'll feel differently and-"

"I'm sorry," said Charles, "But are you seriously suggesting that your sister's decision, one that she clearly agonized over and made while bearing her heart to you, can be changed in the next five minutes?"

Both siblings turned to him, and he saw both of them scrunch up their faces in anger. Who was he, a stranger, to talk about they family? He wasn't anyone really, but Charles was not going to let Lorna go without a voice at the moment. She had confessed to killing people at the age of fourteen, confessed to being lost with her family, and he was not going to let them ignore that.

God knew what had happened when he had ignored that lost feeling within his own family.

"Funny, I didn't ask for your opinion," Wanda said.

"No, you didn't, but you'll get it just the same," said Charles, "Lorna has just declared her intention to stay a student here and, as such, she is under my protection. This makes her my concern, especially when her wishes are very clearly being disregarded."

"But you can't just bar us from talking to her," said Peter.

"So you acknowledge that she's a student here?" asked Charles.

It wasn't much, but it was a start.

"I acknowledge that she is right now," Peter said, "But she's our sister, and we have a right to talk to her."

"So you do," Charles said, "And I have no problem with that. But you're talking about your sister as though...as though she doesn't know her own mind. It seems to me as though there has been quite enough of that already."

Peter let go of Wanda and walked up to Charles's desk. He put both of his hands on the rim and glared at him.

"Don't you dare talk about my family like you understand it," he said.

Charles gave him a level look back. He'd stared down much, much more frightening things than Peter. He looked mildly back at him.

"I don't think either of us fully understands Lorna," he said, "I only ask that you respect her as an adult when you talk to her."

"She's only sixteen," Peter said.

"And yet you think that she's old enough to join back up with the Brotherhood," said Charles, "I'd say that qualifies as an adult."

Peter pushed off from the desk, scowling.

"Where's she at?" he asked.

"I'll ask her," Charles said.

He put his fingers to his temples.

"Stay out of her mind!"

Charles sighed.

"Unless you want to spend the next several hours looking through the school, I think that this is quite a bit faster," he said, "Given the circumstances."

He had a feeling that Peter was going to argue, but Erik shook his head.

"Quicksilver, we really don't have time to give the school a thorough searching, and I doubt Charles would let us where the students could see us," he said, "This should only take a minute."

Peter scowled again. It looked eerily like the way that Erik would glare at him in the middle of an argument. Seeing how he didn't protest any further though, Charles closed his eyes and began searching for Lorna's mind.

He found it soon, a spot of rolling emotions amidst a sea of students worrying about test grades and crushes. She was in her room, and he gave her the gentlest nudge that he could, hoping not to frighten her. Charles could only guess what she was feeling.

_Lorna?_ he thought, _Your siblings wanted to talk to you. _

Lorna paused for a while, and her thoughts came through suspicious.

_Do they want to say goodbye, or do they want to change my mind?_

He winced.

_I believe that they do want to talk to you about going with them,_ he thought,_ I understand that you've made your decision, but they do want to talk. _

There was another silence, and he could feel a sharp, cloying feeling coming from Lorna. He often felt it when the person whose mind he was in cried.

_Professor, I've made my decision,_ she thought, _If they can't accept that, if they don't understand after everything that I told them, then I don't think there's anything else I have to say to them. _

_Are you sure-?_

_Yes. _

The word came through almost angrily. Charles nodded respectfully and left. When he focused on the room in front of him, Wanda and Peter were looking at him impatiently.

"She...well, she's willing to say goodbye," said Charles, "But she doesn't want to talk about her decision."

"That's not fair!" Peter snapped.

Charles felt his eyebrows raise, and he saw Erik look perplexed as well.

"I'm not sure fair has anything to do with it," Charles said.

"But she can't do this!" said Wanda.

"What, can't make her own decisions?" said Charles, "I think that she rather clearly just showed that she could, and that she wants to take that initiative. I'm still not sure if you understand exactly what happened."

"As irritated as I am with Charles at the moment, I believe he's right," Erik said, "While I would have preferred for Lorna to come with us, we don't have the ability to force someone to do so."

It wasn't quite the support that Charles would have preferred, but it was something.

"Don't have the support?" asked Peter.

He gestured to Wanda, who nodded back fiercely.

"Yeah, I've got the support," he said, "We can get her and go somewhere and talk to her somewhere outside of this freak show where her head's clear."

"You will do no such thing," Charles snapped.

Peter whirled around on him, but this had gone far enough. He understood, in a fashion. The two were desperate, panicking at the thought of losing their little sister. They were likely terrified, causing them to act out.

But he wasn't going to allow that fear to hurt someone else.

"Peter, let me make something perfectly clear," he said, "You are not going to go see your sister, because she doesn't want you to. You are not going to force her to leave, because I will not permit it. You know what I am capable of, and I will not hesitate to use it in the protection of my students."

Wanda's eyes became lidded with anger. Charles thought he saw red sparks swirling around her hand, but he wasn't going to allow that either.

"And if you think that you can get past me on this, then you're mistaken," he said, "The people you fought the other night are here, at my school, ready to defend my students. At the first sign of trouble I can have them up here, as well as several teachers who are terribly fond of Lorna. Do not think that you can come here, to my house, and try to hurt my students."

"We're not trying to hurt her!" Peter protested.

"I'd say you've already hurt her quite a bit," Charles said coldly, "And, at the moment, is all that we are going to talk about. We may be able to work something out at a later date, but as for now, that is where I stand. You'll find me more stubborn than most on this point."

Both siblings looked enraged, and Charles braced himself for a fight. Erik calmly stepped in front of Charles, his arms across his chest.

"He's right about being stubborn," Erik said, "Quicksilver, Scarlet, I did not bring you here to make a scene. I brought you here to retrieve your sister. This is no longer an option to us. It's time to leave."

Peter gaped at Erik, speechless. His eyes began rolling around the room before he gritted his teeth together.

"Goddamn you Xavier," he said.

There was a blur, and Peter was gone, the door swinging on its hinges. Charles quickly touched the outside of his mind and found that he was heading downstairs towards the car. He managed to repress a sigh of relief as Wanda ran after her brother, her eyes smudged with angry tears.

"You've made two very powerful enemies today Charles," Erik said.

"Perhaps," said Charles, "But I won't back down, on this or any other subject."

Erik nodded.

"I believe you," he said.

His old friend began to walk out, but stopped halfway to the door.

"Take care of her, will you?" Erik asked.

"To the best of my ability," Charles said.

Erik snorted quietly, but left without another word. Charles finally let out the sigh that he had been holding and leaned back in his chair. He followed Peter and Wanda's minds until they left the school grounds, and then began to work on his papers.

Hank came a few minutes later, trying to figure out what was going on. He gave him a brief summary and quietly arranged for Lorna to have a meeting with Guthrie about her next academic steps. She almost had enough credits for college now.

Once it was all taken care of, Charles glanced at his watch. Two hours had passed. It might not be enough time, but he had never quite been able to figure out when the right time was with Lorna. So he wheeled himself towards her room, making sure that none of the other students were milling about. This had already had too many witnesses.

He knocked on her door, trying to figure out what he should say.

"Lorna?" he asked.

There was no answer, but he hadn't expected any. By now he had a feeling what that meant, so he opened the door. Just like Charles had expected, it was unlocked, and he went in easily, shutting it behind him.

Just like she has done so many years ago, Lorna was sitting on her window seat, hugging her legs and staring out the window. Perhaps she had seen them leave. Perhaps she was wondering what else lay in store for her, what her future was going to be like now that her siblings might not be in it.

He cleared his throat and folded his hands in his lap.

"Lorna-"

"I don't want to talk about it," she said.

He nodded, understanding. He hadn't wanted to talk about Raven for months after she had left.

"Is there anything I can get you?" he asked, "Anything I can do? Anything at all that you want?"

Lorna paused, and he saw her close her eyes.

"I want to talk to my mother," she said.


	32. Chapter 32

They didn't talk about what had happened at the school, not for a long time. The shock was still rippling through Wanda's system and Peter hadn't spoken a word to her after they had left the school. She kept thinking about what she had said to her sister, over and over, wondering how she might have done things differently.

If there had been a chance to speak to her after she told them her decision, a chance to tell her why they could take care of all her concerns, then she was sure that she would have come with them. If only they'd had the chance to talk to her.

But they hadn't and, most infuriatingly of all, Magneto had sided with Xavier. Who were they to determine what they did and didn't do with their sister. It wasn't as though they would really drag her away from the school, if that was what she really wanted. They just wanted to get her away from the circus that their life had become and talk. It wasn't an outrageous request.

She rolled over on her bed and looked at the ceiling. Their new hideout was in the middle of nowhere, and they didn't often get electricity. Magneto had said that they needed to build up their base again, as well as their membership. Astra and Domino might be beyond their reach for now, and no one wanted Jason back.

Wanda closed her eyes and, as she did, the image of The Hanging Man flashed in front of them. She opened her eyes and sat up, breathing hard. Wanda hated that card, hated it more than anything. Why the hell was she thinking about it now when all it had ever done was mess up a reading?

A niggling doubt was starting in the back of her mind. The more she thought about it, The Hanging Man hadn't been the only card that she had continued to draw long after it lost its relevance. She'd also drawn the Queen of Pentacles a few times, Lorna's card.

A slightly panicky feeling started. The Hanging Man was a decision **card,** one that she had always thought applied to her and her brother. What if it had been applying to Lorna. Had that been what the reading was trying to tell her? True, she hadn't drawn Lorna's card the last time she'd done a reading. However, it had stayed there, hanging over her and her brother. Had it been a warning, or just a reminder?

She slid off her bed and zipped up her red boots angrily. The image of the card was still in her head, and it was driving her absolutely insane. Why wouldn't it just go away? She had never been good at reading tarot cards. It's not like they'd ever had any meaning. Wanda shrugged on her coat and headed out to the living room. She needed some air.

When she walked into the living room, she saw her brother. Peter was sitting on the couch, staring at the TV. It wasn't on though, and Wanda felt a little uneasy. She looked longingly at the door, but after what had happened with Lorna, Peter really was all she had.

So she sat down next to him, wondering what she was supposed to say.

"Hey," she murmured.

* * *

><p>Peter considered not answering at first. He was happiest when left alone right now, and he was kind of irritated that Wanda didn't know that. She was supposed to be his twin. She was supposed to understand.<p>

But it wasn't in him to not answer someone. It wasn't in him not to talk, and pity the poor soul who got him going. The thought almost made him smile, but the weight of the past few days was still far too great to consider really smiling.

"Hey," he murmured back.

Wanda hesitated. Maybe she hadn't expected him to answer back. This would show her. She waited for another moment before speaking again.

"Peter-" she said.

"Call me Quicksilver," Peter said.

She frowned then. He'd rarely corrected her when it was just the two of them but, right now, the name seemed really important.

"Quicksilver doesn't have a younger sister," he said, "Didn't leave her alone at some godforsaken school because he didn't notice how hurt she was. Peter does, and Peter's an asshole."

He barely had time to think before Wanda wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. He supposed that, with everything that had been going on, someone at least acknowledging what they were feeling was a good thing. Peter hesitated for a moment before hugging her back. Peter needed something to ground him, anything that didn't make him think about Lorna, about his own failure.

"We left her," Wanda said.

"I know."

"Again."

"I know that too."

Wanda was crying, and it pissed him off. She was always able to cry when these things happened, and he never was. Didn't he have a right to cry? Didn't he feel upset enough to cry? It wasn't Wanda that Lorna had focused in on when she had said that they had left her. She had looked at him. Maybe he deserved that. He'd all but told her that she couldn't come with them because of who she was.

If Xavier had given them a few minutes, then they could have explained that. Just thinking the name made him want to punch the guy's lights out. There were some hours where he'd just about convinced himself to defy order and go back to Westchester, force Lorna down for a talk.

He didn't though, because doing that would give away their position. He looked past his sister's auburn hair at the room around them.

"Were we really that bad?" he asked.

Wanda sniffed.

"I don't know," she said.

"Neither do I," Peter admitted, "That's what's bothering me."

He looked up at the ceiling. Some part of him was saying that there was still a way to fix this. All he had to do was quit the Brotherhood and go to New York. He'd have to go back to school, and he'd have to listen to that asshole Xavier, but they'd all be together again.

How could he give up the Brotherhood though? Despite what Lorna had said, he knew that they were doing the right thing. He knew that someone had to fight for mutant kind, and if they gave up, then there would be no one else out there.

The two arguments tore him apart, and he looked at Wanda.

"If you want…" he muttered, "We could leave all of this behind. Go to Westchester. Fix things with Lorna."

Wanda stopped crying and gripped him tighter.

"Just say the word," he said.

Silence stretched on between them, and Peter just hugged his sister closer. At least he still had her.

* * *

><p>The hospital ward was bare. That wasn't to say that it was cheerless though, just that it had that strange clinical feel that you could find at generally every hospital. The staff had been kind to Lorna. No one had even commented on her green hair or given her unusual looks. It was nearly the eighties after all, and from what Hank had told her about the advancing nature of the human genome, there would be a lot more people like her soon.<p>

She smoothed her leggings, feeling as though she were about to cry. She had done so much crying over the past few days that it seemed to come naturally to her now. Every time she thought of Peter and Wanda her eyes teared up. Lorna was glad that, when she had cried in front of them in the Professor's office, the tears were hot and thick. Those she could deal with. She was having trouble with the cold ones, ones that made her feel alone in the world. Lorna had never been good with those.

A few phone calls to her hometown had ascertained where her mother was. That was easy, although she had been grateful to the Professor for arranging it. Finding out that her mother had been diagnosed with cancer and been hospitalized one year ago had been difficult.

At first she had considered not going. Why would her mother want to see her when she was dying, her little prodigal daughter who had left her without a thought? Surely her mother would want to die in peace without remembering her backstabbing children.

But the nurse had said that her mother wanted to see her, and now Lorna was sitting in the waiting room wondering what she was about to say. Maybe she should have taken the Professor up on his offer and let him wait with her. What did you say after five years of not speaking to your mother? It didn't help that Peter and Wanda's faces had been plastered all over the news. What must her mother think of them?

She turned her head, feeling ashamed, just as the door opened. The nurse smiled at her and Lorna got up, swallowing. She ushered her in and Lorna tugged on her sleeves, struggling to walk and move. She hadn't felt this sluggish and small in a long time, not knowing what to think or say or feel.

Then she stepped into the room. Her mother was lying on the bed, her head turned away from the door. More tears filled Lorna's eyes when she saw her mother's thinning hair and skinny frame. She and once thought that her mother was the strongest woman in the world, and it hurt to see her looking so weak.

Then her mother looked at her, her eyes widening in surprise. Silence fell heavily between them. So much had gone wrong in their lives, starting with the day Lorna's father had died. Maybe it had started before then, but as far as Lorna could tell things had been better. Certainly her mother had been distant from them since they discovered their mutations, but all of that must have come as a shock. Then her children had left and Lorna couldn't help but feel the weight of that betrayal.

But when her mother began to cry Lorna rushed to her side, gathering her mother's thin frame into a hug. They cried together then, the weight of the years and the time spent apart crashing down on them.

"I have so much to tell you Lorna," her mother wept, "I...there's so much I wanted to say, but I'm sorry-"

"No mom, I'm sorry," Lorna said.

She sat down on the edge of her bed, her mother in her arms. More than anything, she wished Peter and Wanda were there. She wished that it were five years ago, before the men had come to their house and she'd run away with her siblings. Lorna wished a lot of things.

However, she couldn't change things. She couldn't go back in time, and she hadn't found a mutant that could help her. Lorna couldn't dissuade her siblings from their path, and couldn't join them on it. Her old life was, for all reasons and affects, over.

That didn't mean that life was over for her. There had been a choice for her, a fork in the road, and she had begun to walk down the path that diverged from her siblings. They were gone now, out of sight and probably out of her life. Lorna could begin anew though, could enjoy whatever time she had left with her mother. She could go to college, get a job, live her own life. It would hurt, but it was what she had chosen.

So she held onto her mother tighter.

"I'm so, so sorry," she whispered.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: **Thank you all for reading! Getting inside the Maximoffs' heads was difficult, but it was really fun. The sequel to this, "When I fall," will come out in about two weeks._

_All three of the siblings have really diverse personalities, which made some kind of fall seem inevitable. Peter, for all of his snark, has a vicious edge to him that I wanted to draw out. His desperation for a place brought his siblings to the Brotherhood, which wasnt what they expected. _

_Wanda was a little difficult. There are several different versions of her out there, so I went with her protective nature, coupled with a strong understanding of just what her power was. She represents a middle ground between the siblings, but still gravitated towards the Brotherhood. _

_I drew a lot of inspiration for Lorna from "Wolverine and the X-Men" as well as the comics. Her loyalty was always touching, but she had a tendency to choose the right, difficult path, rather than the ones she felt bound to by blood. For the sequel, we're going to be flashing forwards about four years._

_Now, for some special shoutouts. Thank you to hippiechick2112, Lizeyli, and xenocanaan!_


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